More age, less growth? Secular stagnation and societal ageing

What is it about?

This paper examines the relationship between the ageing of society and its economic growth. Several attempts have been made to show that societal ageing accounts for much if not all of the slowdown in economic growth in so many of the advanced economies. This is called the secular stagnation hypothesis. In reviewing these studies, this paper argues that while the advanced economies are ageing and their growth slowing, a causal connection is difficult to prove. But in addressing the ageing of society, we can be stimulated to rethink what we mean by 'growth' and how that might mean different things for different societies, at different levels of development with different generational structures. The brake that societal ageing seems to occasion demands a re-think on relentless growth, and the need for less growth and more re-distribution.

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