According to research by Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo, population aging can be a powerful driver of automation, technological innovation, and productivity growth. As the workforce shrinks, labour becomes more expensive, encouraging businesses to invest in robotics, digitalization, and new technologies. Successfully managing this transition will require support for innovation, investment in human capital, workforce reskilling, better access to investment capital, and social policies that help ease the impact of structural changes in the labour market.

Key takeaways:

• Labour shortages can create strong incentives for technological innovation and higher productivity.
• Automation is a natural response to demographic change. Countries with faster population aging tend to invest more heavily in robotics, digitalization, and artificial intelligence.
• The Czech Republic has strong potential to adapt thanks to its well-developed industrial base. Accelerating digitalization, supporting innovation, and making it easier to invest in new technologies will be essential.

Policy Paper – Martin Zeman

The analysis is in PDF under the link below.