Should the Old Retire to Give Jobs to the Young?

The Economist explains that the "lump of labor" argument that the old are taking the jobs of the young is flawed. Early retirement incentives are no solution to high youth unemployment. According to labor demographic data, the ratio of pre-retirement to new workers is fairly constant across high employment and low employment OECD economies. So high elderly employment is not offset by low youth employment, but is actually associated with high youth employment. So the choice is more the following. We can be like Greece, the old retire at 54 and the young are unemployed. Or we can have old people work longer, create jobs for the young, and have a higher pre capita GDP overall.