Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/47508 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. 10,02
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
This paper tries to assess whether or not we have any empirical evidence of links between early retirement and youth unemployment. Most economists would today dismiss the idea immediately as another version of the naive 'lump-of-labor fallacy'. In its most basic form, this proposition holds that there is a fixed supply of jobs and that any reduction in labor supply will reduce unemployment by offering jobs to those who are looking for ones. Taken to the extreme, this view would support that the idea that a high level of employment of one group of individuals can only be at the expense of another group: if for instance were the population of a country to increase, younger individuals would be unemployed as older individuals would not 'release' enough jobs for the new entrants. The absurdity of this view in the long term is simply seen by considering the fact that the size of a country does not bear any relation to the share of population unemployed.
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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