{"id":31334,"date":"2023-07-12T14:48:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T14:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/population-and-economy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:51:27","slug":"population-and-economy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/population-and-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Population and economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Population and economy<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Interview with Daniele Archibugi<\/a>, economist in the Globalization, Research and Innovation<\/a> research group. July 11, 2023 (World Population Day) <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How do changes in population, in terms of numbers and age, influence the economy? <\/span><\/p>

The influence is very high and not yet fully perceived. We are still reasoning with old paradigms regarding the relationship between work and non-work, active population and retirees, and time spent studying versus time spent working. We have not yet fully understood that current trends are irreversible, and we find ourselves still unprepared. <\/p>

What do you mean?<\/span><\/p>

For example, in many countries\u2014we see it today in France, but also in Italy\u2014it seems that the fundamental issue is the choice between work or retirement, as if the alternative were binary. Nothing could be further from the truth. Working full-time, draining energy and resources from the private and social spheres, is a detriment to the community. Similarly, it is a detriment to have working life end abruptly and completely. Instead, we need to accommodate demographic trends by ensuring that all age groups have more time for private and social life. At the same time, we must ensure that, upon reaching a certain age, work commitment is progressively reduced. It is one of the worst ailments of capitalism to think that there is an industrial army on one side and an army of non-workers on the other. <\/p>

But does this only concern older people, or does it also concern the young?<\/span><\/p>

Yes, absolutely, it also concerns the young. It makes no sense for entry into the labor market to happen too late, as if education should be understood as a realm separate from the world of production. Instead, we must ensure that young people, even while attending high school, make a contribution to the world of work, obviously limited in terms of hours. The most advanced countries, such as the Scandinavian countries, have long provided forms in which young men and women can work for a very small number of hours, for example 4 or 6 hours a week. This allows them to earn the pocket money that in other countries they must ask their parents for, and to understand early on that there is education, but also work. <\/p>

What implications would all this have for educational institutions?<\/span>
Even today, we think that instruction and education are activities reserved for certain age groups and that education must end at 19, or at 25 for those attending university. Nothing could be further from the truth. Education is an activity that must continue throughout a person’s life. One of the great achievements of trade unions in Italy was the introduction of the “150 hours,” which allow workers to dedicate part of their working time to education and professional development.
Current demographic trends in Western countries, even more marked in Italy, make all this mandatory. With technological change as rapid as what we are experiencing in recent years, it is constantly necessary for workers, no less than citizens, to be professionally updated. Digital education, for example, is now a necessity to ensure that all segments of the population, including older people, can participate in economic, social, cultural, and civic life. <\/p>

How could educational institutions respond to these challenges?<\/span><\/p>

Let us look at schools and universities: they are simply becoming depopulated for the simple reason that young people were not born. Classes are getting smaller and smaller. I am a boomer, and when I was young, schools did everything they could to send prospective students elsewhere, because there were so many of us that they had to run double and triple shifts. Obviously, this reflected the state’s inability to create sufficient infrastructure in a timely manner.
Today, the exact opposite is happening: schools, high schools, and universities are competing for students, because there are too few students. One does not need to be a genius to understand that the solution is to offer the increasingly necessary educational services to the people who need them. <\/p>

And who are these people?<\/span><\/p>

Firstly, adults, who risk being marginalized or unproductive because they are unable to do things that are very easy for Millennials and Gen Z. Grandparents who have grandchildren are already luckier, because they can occasionally trade an apple pie for a tutorial on how WhatsApp works. But these things cannot be left solely to the family sphere. Schools should be open in the afternoons to allow adults and the elderly to master these now essential tools. <\/p>

Secondly, let us be thankful that there are immigrants today. Forget “ethnic replacement”! Fortunately, there is ethnic integration; otherwise, our factories, our offices, and our services would be abandoned. But it is not enough to receive immigrants: we must also train them in a way that is compatible with their professional commitments. Afternoon and evening courses should be strengthened, because we need competent people to help keep our country standing. <\/p>

Edited by Monia Torre<\/a><\/p>

Read also:
<\/span>– Social informatics and population<\/a> – Interview with Patrizia Grifoni
– Demographic aging, migration and new family models<\/a> – interview with Angela Paparusso<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Population and economy Interview with Daniele Archibugi, economist in the Globalization, Research and Innovation research group. July 11, 2023 (World Population Day) How do changes in population, in terms of numbers and age, influence the economy? The influence is very high and not yet fully perceived. We are still reasoning with old paradigms regarding the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31334","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31337,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31334\/revisions\/31337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irpps.cnr.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}