On Monday, 4 November, the Economy group will hold its lunch seminar. PI Paul Ehling will kick off with an introduction to the project, followed by Fellow Zeshu Xu’s talk titled “Demographics and Technology Adoption.” 

Abstract: The share of young has declined in all major economies. Xu studies the consequence of this trend in a dynamic model with (1) technological waves that arrive at random times, and (2) a labour market friction that the young are more adoptive to technological changes. Firms with differing technologies enter the economy as a result of directed research and development (R&D) investments driven by differing expected profits across old and new technologies. Xu shows that a smaller share of the young population leads to a tighter labour market, and therefore less R&D investments, slower adoption of the new technologies, lower economic growth, and higher consumption volatility.