Can the ageing North benefit from expanding trade with the South?

In this paper we estimate the benefit for the ageing North countries of diversifying some of their trade away from other North countries in favour of South countries. To this end we use a six-region overlapping generations model that takes into account the demographic trends of the 21st century and trade patterns. We show that ageing North countries can benefit from “enriching decay” through significant improvement in terms of trade. We estimate to what extent enriching decay can be bolstered if the North expands trade with the South. In Europe and Japan, for instance, an appropriate trade diversification strategy may prop up real per capita consumption by 2% and 2.4% respectively.