Change in manufacturing productivity (2000–2020) according to different levels of initial median age (panel A); median age in NUTS-2 regions (panel B). Notes. The sample includes Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Sweden, and Finland as in the econometric approach proposed in the following sections. Panel A focuses on manufacturing productivity in NUTS-2 regions and plots the simple correlation between past levels of median age (2000) and change in labor productivity (2000–2020). Increases in the lightness of colors in panel A stand for higher levels of manufacturing specialization across NUTS-2 regions under investigation. Specialization is computed as the logarithmic transformation of the ratio between hours worked in manufacturing and the area of the NUTS-2 region. The change in manufacturing productivity is estimated as the difference between the logarithmic transformation of both labor productivity in 2020 and that in 2000. The x-axis shows natural levels for sake of simplicity; however, it plots the logarithmic level. Panel B plots the level of median age in 2022 in NUTS-2 regions under study. Lighter to darker colors indicate an increase in the median age. Source: Authors’ elaboration on Eurostat data.