NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Aging and Productivity, Rationality and Matching: Evidence from Economists

Daniel S. Hamermesh

NBER Working Paper No. 4906*
Issued in October 1994
NBER Program(s):   LS

Economists' productivity, as measured by publication in leading journals, declines very sharply with age. Additional evidence shows that this is a rational response to economic incentives and/or changing physical or mental abilities: There is no difference by age in the probability that an article submitted to a leading journal will be accepted. The probability of acceptance does show increasing heterogeneity with age that is related to the author's quality, consistent with models of optimal investment in human capital and especially with occupational matching models.

*Published: "Aging and Productivity among Economists: Note" Oster, Sharon M.; Hamermesh, Daniel S.; Review of Economics and Statistics, February 1998, v. 80, iss. 1, pp. 154-56

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