The baby boomers and the productivity slowdown

The entry of baby boomers into the labor force in the late 1960s and 1970s slowed growth for physical and human capital per worker because young workers have little of both. Thus, the baby boom could have contributed to the productivity slowdown. I build and calibrate a model a la Huggett et al. (2011) with exogenous population growth, life expectancy, retirement and TFP to evaluate this theory. The baby boom alone accounts for 53% of the slowdown in the period 1964-69, 18% in 1970-74 and 6% in 1975-79. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.