Daniele Angelini (University of Vienna)
Filippo Boeri
This paper develops a three-region general equilibrium model to study how population aging affects technology adoption, innovation, wages, and migration. A continuum of tasks can be produced with either a new, capital-intensive technology or a vintage, more labor-intensive one. Productivities evolve endogenously through skilled-labor R\&D. In an overlapping-generations environment, agents choose whether to acquire skills, older workers may retrain, and young workers may migrate. Home natives can emigrate to a high-productivity North, while young workers from a lower-productivity South can immigrate to Home. Aging reduces the supply of young skilled labor, weakens incentives to adopt and improve skill-complementary technologies, compresses the skilled wage premium at Home relative to North, and raises youth emigration. A preliminary calibration for Italy (Home), Europe (North), and North Africa (South) is consistent with increasing emigration and a rising skilled share among emigrants.