 17 April 2019  Trento, Italy
Organised by the OECD Trento Centre
The OECD Spatial Productivity Lab (SPL)
The OECD Spatial Productivity Lab (SPL) is a dedicated research laboratory that works with local and global partners to improve our understanding of the spatial dimension of productivity growth, the relevance of links between different types of areas and how regional policy can facilitate productivity growth, creation of better jobs and increased well-being.
The OECD Spatial Productivity Lab at the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development is an integral part of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities. The mission of the Trento Centre is to build capacities for local development in OECD member and non-member countries, working directly with policy makers at all levels of government.
Focus of this meeting
Combatting the economic impact of ageing through productivity growth
Ageing is one of the two important consequences of demographic change together with population decline. Demographic change in OECD countries receives less attention than other current global megatrends, such as climate change, globalisation or automation. The belief that market mechanisms attenuate the impact of ageing is misplaced when it comes to ageing in OECD TL3 regions. The benefits from increased investment do not arise in the regions where ageing progresses most rapidly. The negative impact of ageing on productivity growth is the strongest in sectors concentrated in urban regions, e.g., tradable services. The larger negative impact in these sectors is consistent with the idea that automated technologies, which can compensate for an ageing and shrinking workforce, are not good substitutes for the non-manual/non-routine tasks characterising these sectors. Concrete efforts to increase the resilience of regions to the adverse economic and social impacts that will accompany the continued demographic change need a range of measures.
Fluctuations of employment across age and gender: reactions to employment cyclicality in a liberalized at margin labour market
Two reforms affected the Italian labour market in the last decades in Italy. First, a program of “selective flexibilisation” tried to increase labour market efficiency through a more effective matching process and easier worker reallocation. The reform mainly affected younger cohorts of individuals, while prime-age and old-age workers preserved stronger guarantees and legal protection. Second, change of retirement legislation progressively increased the retirement age. The two reforms modified the pattern of adaptation of age groups to labour market fluctuations. In this study, the “first out-first in” model of entry and exit, driven by productivity of different groups, is contrasted with the “first out-last in” model, driven by the costs of hiring and firing. Our preliminary findings indicate that (1) extreme age groups (younger and older) are the most sensitive to downturns; (2) during the upturns, both extreme age groups react by entering in the workforce; however, only the oldest ones re-enter employment; (3) in general, the asymmetries among age classes are more relevant in the movements toward employment. Our study also finds sensible differences among genders.
Participation
The event was open to experts, civil society and all interested parties upon registration.
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