Going for IIPF is an adventure every time. Many of the papers are applied microeconometrics which is always very exciting. However, increasingly presentations include structural macroeconomic models, which are greater and greater every day. Our session included a couple of super interesting models: Public Debt in Calibrated OLG Models: Fiscal Arithmetic versus Welfare Analysis (by Jakob Hussmann and Johannes Brumm) and Public Debt, Interest Rates and Wealth Inequality (by Willliam Ben Peterman and Erick Sager). We also received a ton of very useful comments from the audience. 

We study the role of demographic transition in determining the level and volatility of unemployment through the lens of a New Keynesian model with overlapping generations and labor market frictions. It is a well-documented empirical regularity that young workers are characterized by relatively higher unemployment than prime-age workers. It is due to both entry frictions and the relatively lower productivity of inexperienced workers. By contrast, elderly workers are typically characterized by low unemployment rates. Demographic transition in Europe due to declining fertility rates implies that young workers are becoming increasingly scarce, whereas the share of elderly workers in the working-age population is systematically rising. These demographic trends give rise to a hypothesis that unemployment may exhibit a secular decline in Europe.