Age-specific labor market dynamics

One important finding concerns the fact that job separations for older workers constitute mostly a one-way exit out of the labor force, despite the fact that an ageing society calls for an active labor market participation from us all. Also, the allocation of labor for younger workers has shown to be imperfect due to inefficient labor mobility. This thesis has shown how flexibility in several dimensions could improve the labor market position, and hence participation, of older workers. For example, flexible wage schemes may alleviate barriers to older workers’ labor market participation on the labor demand side, while flexibility in working hours reduces barriers on the labor supply side. These examples of flexibility may result in a better labor market match for workers individually, but an improved allocation of labor will eventually also generate wealth and economic growth in the economy as a whole.