Human capital investments are frequently suggested as a policy measure to cope with smaller and older labour forces caused by demographic change across Europe. However, the availability and composition of human capital is fundamentally intertwined with demographic structures, especially at a regional level. This paper analyses how ageing is related to the regional composition of human capital for 324 German regions between 2000 and 2010. The findings show that labour force ageing is associated with lower educational attainment, and that older labour forces have higher shares of traditional vocational degrees. On a national level, education expansion still sufficiently compensates for the effects of population ageing, but regional human capital composition shows distinct trends.
Regional demographic change is often conceptualised as a circular process, where out-migration continuously worsens conditions of population ageing and shrinkage. Thus, if migration acts as a consequence as well as cause of ageing, migration patterns should be influenced by the age structure of origin and destination regions. This paper analyses individual-level migration decisions of full-time employees across 326 German regions between 1997 and 2013 using binary choice models. The results show that individuals are more likely to migrate out of and less likely to migrate towards ageing regions. Moreover, the identified patterns are consistent with age-selective migration reinforcing ageing processes and polarisation of demographic structure.
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