The effect of population age structure on per capita income (With emphasis on the role of population in labor supply and human capital)

In investigation of effective factors on economic growth and per-capita income، in addition to investment in physical and human capital، social stability، role of government، type of political system، and population growth، “population age structure” is one of the effective and important factors absent from much of body of research. Therefore، in this paper، we study the effect of population age structure on per-capita income، with emphasis on the role of population in labor supply and human capital. Doing so، firstly we design and extract an empirical model that shows the relationship between population age structure and per-capita income according to the neoclassical growth literature، then in the next step، the model was tested experimentally. For an empirical test of the model، information available on 82 countries for the period 1982 to 2008 has been used. The results suggest that with 1-per cent increase in the share of the population under 15 years in overall population، per-capita income decreases by 1. 08 per cent. With a 1-per cent increase in the share of the population 15 to 64 years and 1-per cent increase in the share of the population over 65، the per-capita income increases by 3. 39 per cent and 0. 34 per cent، respectively.