Labor

Population aging and rapid automation are jointly reshaping labor markets in major economies, yet their interaction at older ages remains poorly understood. This paper examines how robot adoption shapes post-retirement reemployment among older individuals in China.

We examine how Chinese firms compete for high-skilled talent using novel text-based product market competitor networks and job posting data. We document strong strategic complementarity. a one unit increase in rivals’ high-skilled postings raises a firm’s own postings by 0.6, generating a multiplier of 2.5. This competition is product-market driven, national in scope, and absent for low-skilled workers.