Ageing and productivity growth in OECD regions : combatting the economic impact of ageing through productivity growth?

OECD countries and their regions are ageing fast. In principle, the negative impact of ageing on the growth rate of per capita gross domestic product could be offset by increases in productivity. However, for many regions, productivity growth required to maintain per capita GDP levels constant has been higher than the actual growth rates they recorded in the past years. One reason for this is that ageing also has a direct negative impact on productivity growth, with the effect being concentrated in urban areas. One possible explanation is that cities specialise in sectors, such as tradable services, where the content of tasks makes it difficult to automate stages of the production process and where business dynamism, negatively affected by demographic change, is a more solid driver of productivity growth. Finally, ageing seems to be associated with a redistribution of revenues away from workers and towards capital and firm owners.