The impact of ageing on Welfare and labour productivity: An econometric analysis for the Netherlands

Ageing attracts ever-increasing attention because it has many implications for welfare and society and is an important subject for policymakers. This chapter focuses on ageing effects on welfare and labour supply. How can a falling labour supply be compensated for while welfare is maintained? In principle, there are five possible ways: (i) increase the retirement age; (ii) increase the annual number of working hours; (iii) increase labour productivity; (iv) increase net labour participation; and/or (v) optimise the spatial allocation of productive activities and jobs. This chapter focuses on growing labour productivity as a means to counteract the adverse effects of ageing using a new and unique micro-level dataset for the Netherlands