Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do Elderly Workers Crowd Out Younger Workers In The United States?, Jing Jin

Honors Theses

This paper investigates the often repeated 'lump of labor' theory that the increasing labor force participation of older workers negatively impacts the labor market activity of younger workers. Using the panel data spanning from 1998 to 2015 from the Merged Outgoing Rotation Groups of the Current Population Survey, this paper employs time-series state-level regressions to determine the extent to which such 'crowding out' exists in the United States. Existing studies show little evidence of substitution between young and old workers. In contrast to previous studies, this paper controls for differences in individual educational levels by disaggregating the labor force sample …