Ageing in the labour market: a spatial VAR approach

This study examines the effects of ageing on per capita labour income, consumption and wealth of the working population in Italian provinces. Starting from the overlapping generations (OLG) model of perpetual youth, we estimate a spatial vector autoregressive (VAR) model to investigate how ageing affects the model's dynamics. We find that ageing positively impacts per capita labour income and wealth, consequently having an adverse effect on consumption (over-accumulation). A simple exercise shows that over-accumulation is beneficial to the Italian social security system.