EconAir

The Future Labor Force   SUMMARY This post is a summary of some of the themes of previous posts on demographic and population projections, with an emphasis on how demographics will impact economic growth. See bibliography at the end of this post. For a list of all blog posts on a wide variety of topics, see  List of Posts by Topic on my blog.   Almost all countries outside of Africa are already facing or will soon face below replacement birth rates. Without immigration, this could lead first to smaller labor forces with greater numbers of retired citizens. Eventually, however, both the number of workers and retired citizens will decrease. During both stages of the transition, there will be issues of how to increase total output, maintain standards of living and allocate income between the two major age groups. See  Global Demographics and Population Projections .   Population and economies can growth even if birth rates are below replacement. But eventually both...

Krupp Steel Works, Gun Shop #1, 1917 Library of Congress New Nations in Europe and Global Political Change (1860s – 1914)    New nation-states were formed in Europe at the beginning of this period – Italy in 1867, Germany in 1870, Austria-Hungary in 1867, and new nation-states carved out of Ottoman empire in the Balkans in the 1870s.    Other countries pursued new policies. France and England expanded their colony empires and fought a number of wars against native resistance (this was the first time machine guns were used). Russia attempted to expand its influence and control into Central Asia and the Far East (Siberia and Manchuria). Under pressure from the outside, Japan ended its isolation and started rapid industrialization in the 1860s and 1870s. By the 1890s, Japan began imperialist expansion by defeating China in a war and establishing control of Korea, Taiwan and part of Manchuria. The Chinese dynastic system came to an end in 1911, starting a period of in...