CASE Foundation, CASE Institute

“Due to serious differences in labor market structures between the New Member States (NMS) (including current candidates) and the EU15, the former will be the first to experience higher-than-average productivity costs of ageing in the near future.” This hypothesis is examined by Mateusz Walewski in the latest paper in the CASE Network Studies and Analyses series, “Analysis of cross-country differences in the shape of the age-wage relationship with an attempt to tackle age-productivity differences within the EU.” Walewski notes that the relationship between age and productivity is becoming increasingly important as the European population ages and the retirement age increases. Thus as the average age of workers goes up, the average level of productivity growth will go down, resulting in the decreasing competitiveness of European economies. How does the relative productivity of older workers in the NMS compare to productivity in the EU15? Click here to see all the latest CASE publications.