New Technologies, Workplace Organisation and the Age Structure of the Workforce: Firm-Level Evidence

This paper investigates the relationships between new technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age structure of the workforce in a sample of French manufacturing firms. We find evidence that the wage-bill share of older workers is lower in innovative firms and that the opposite holds for younger workers. This age bias affects both men and women. It is also evidenced within occupational groups, thus suggesting that skills do not completely protect workers against the labour-market consequences of ageing. More detailed analysis of employment inflows and outflows shows that new technologies essentially affect older workers through reduced hiring opportunities as compared to younger workers. In contrast, organisational innovations mainly affect the probability of exit, which decreases much more for younger than for older workers following reorganisation.