摘要：This article surveys supervisors’ ratings, analyses of piece-rates and em-
ployer-employee datasets as well as other approaches used to estimate how individ-
ual productivity varies with age. The causes of productivity variations over the life
cycle are addressed with an emphasis on howcognitive abilities affect labourmarket
performance. Earnings tend to increase until relative late in the working life, while
most evidence suggests that individuals’job performance tends to increase in the first
few years of one’s entry into the labour market, before it stabilises and often de-
creases towards the end of one’s career. Productivity reductions at older ages are par-
ticularly strongwhen problemsolving, learning and speed are important,while older
individuals maintain a relatively high productivity level in work tasks where
experience and verbal abilities matter more.
