Thomas Horvath - How can closing gaps in labor force participation at the intersection between race/ethnicity and gender mitigate population ageing in the United States?

• Presenting author: Thomas Horvath (Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO))

• Authors: René Böheim, Thomas Horvath, Martin Spielauer, Thomas Leoni

• Topic: Microsimulation models as input for policy decisions and diffusion to the greater public or stakeholders

In this paper, we develop a dynamic microsimulation model to project the future labor force supply in the United States, accounting for the complexities of population heterogeneity at the intersection between race/ethnicity and gender. We focus on disparities at the intersection between race/ethnicity and gender to contrast different policy scenarios and show the potential impact that closing the gaps between population sub-groups can have on increasing the U.S. workforce. The model builds on previous work using the dynamic microsimulation model microWELT-US to project labor supply developments in the United States (Böheim, Horvath, Leoni and Spielauer, 2023). These projections included different scenarios to assess the impact that changes in education, health and the labor market integration of people with disability could have on future labor force participation. We refine our modeling approach to account for differences between population groups at the intersection between race/ethnicity and gender.