Skills, population aging, and the pattern of international trade

Abstract

Some cognitive functions, such as the ability to update skills and adapt to changes in working conditions, are known to vary with age. With population aging it becomes increasingly difficult for firms to find workers with up-todate skills. As a result, countries with aging populations start losing comparative advantage in industries that rely heavily on those skills. We test this hypothesis and find robust evidence for a significant negative effect of population aging on comparative advantage of a country in industries that are intensive in skill adaptability of labor force, in both the cross-sectional and the dynamic panel data sets.

Demographic Structure and Comparative Advantages: Theory and Evidence

“…This contributes to the augmentation of the country's aggregate productivity. This view aligns with the findings of Cai and Stoyanov (2016), Gu andStoyanov (2019), andBoucekkine et al (2002) to some extent. Specifically, Cai and Stoyanov (2016) contend that demographic disparities form the basis of comparative advantages in international trade.…”

The human capital behind AI

“…12 Vowpal Wabbit is an open-source, fast, parallel ML system with features, such as continuous learning or dimensionality reduction, and hence allows fast learning on big data. 13 Basically deep learning is entirely based on artificial neural networks. One cannot be there without the other.…”

“…literacy, numeracy and problem solving) and socioemotional skills for thriving in a digital and interconnected global economy has been widely acknowledged (OECD, 2016 [18]; OECD, 2017 [15]). Existing studies also point to the need to distinguish and analyse the role played by cognitive, socio-emotional and tasksbased skills, given that human capital is highly specific to the tasks carried out by workers (Gibbons and Waldman, 2004[19]; Gathmann and Schönberg, 2010 [20]; Grundke et al, 2017 [21]; 2018 [13]; Cammeraat, Samek and Squicciarini, 2021 [14]; 2021 [22]).…”

“…This is expected because deep learning skills are based on neural network skills and more recently on software libraries for deep learning coding. A skill sub-bundle concentrated around the extensive use of deep learning skills are the natural language processing skills, including speech recognition skills 13 . the skill profile that British employers require their AI talent to be endowed with appears more nuanced in the earlier observation period compared to the United States.…”

Do Free Trade Agreements Affect Tariffs of Nonmember Countries? A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

“…For example, the important and influential literature addressing whether FTAs are building or stumbling blocks for further liberalization in the world economy has tended to focus primarily on the effects FTAs have on the incentives for further liberalization of member countries. 3 Our analysis shows that the scope of this line of inquiry needs to be broadened to also include the effects that FTAs might have on the policies of nonmember countries.…”