Age of managers and employees – Firm survival

Many developed countries will face a disproportionately large share of older individuals in the future. This change may lead to a labour force characterized by older employees and older operational managers. This paper contributes to the existing literature on the effect of aging on firm performance by performing an explorative analysis of how the age of the operational manager and the age composition of employees relate to the survival of Swedish firms during 2004–2013. We observe that the relationship between the age of the operational manager and firm exit changes functional shape when separated into different firm-size categories. Additionally, the age of the operational manager tends to be more important for new firms compared to incumbents. The share of older employees is positively associated with firm survival.