Our Economic Times: Demographics and Macroeconomic Growth

This column was published in Savannah Morning News.

The overall economy of the United States - as measured by the gross domestic product - grew at a rate of 2.4 percent year over year in 2014. This marks the ninth straight year that the economy grew less than 3 percent, which has been considered the estimated benchmark trend for U.S. growth since World War II. In response to the disappointing post-crisis recovery, many commentators have failed to acknowledge the impact of demographic trends on labor supply and broader economic activity. One could imagine, and rightly so, that numerous macroeconomic indicators may be influenced by trends in demographics such as working-age population or the proportion of relatively young or old...