Author(s)

Fernando Mesa

Department of Economics and Business, Jorge Tadeo University, Bogotá, Colombia.

This paper focuses on the decomposition of real wages in Colombia both by workers’ ages and by cohorts, which overlap over time. The paper analyses how the Colombia’s labour structure has undergone important changes in the period 1982-2007. This period has been characterized by a demographic transition that has tilted the balance from a relatively young population to an older one. The effects of capital accumulation have been estimated and modelled considering the presence of ever more sophisticated machinery, usually replacing less-skilled, younger workers, in relation to older and more qualified ones. In general real wages present a curved shape for each generation, as is acknowledged in the life-cycle hypothesis, according to which people generally start their working life with low incomes and rising debts and then obtain higher income and accumulate assets.

Human Capital Skill Occupational Choice Labour Productivity, Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, Wage Levels and Structure Wage Differentials

Mesa, F. (2016) Intergenerational Real Wages, Technological Change, and Economic Growth in Colombia. Modern Economy, 7, 124-139. doi: 10.4236/me.2016.72015.