IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/adrxxx/v40y2023i02ns0116110523400048.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The People’s Republic of China’s 40-Year Demographic Dividend and Labor Supply: The Quantity Myth

Author

Listed:
  • XIN MENG

    (Research School of Economics, College of Business and Economics, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)

Abstract

During the past 40 years, the economy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has achieved miraculous growth, a significant part of which many have attributed to its favorable labor supply resulting from the country’s “demographic dividend†–that is, a relatively large share of the working-age population in the total population (WAPS). Currently, this dividend is slipping away, and many in the PRC are very concerned. Against this background, I set out to examine the contributions of various dimensions of the PRC’s changing WAPS and its impact on economic growth. I show that between 1982 and 2015 the increase in WAPS was offset by a decline in the labor force participation rate, resulting in a very limited increase in the quantity of the labor supply. I then estimate the association between regional variations in economic growth and changes in factors such as population size, WAPS, migration, and education. The results lend little support to the view that an expanding WAPS played a major role in the PRC’s economic growth over this period.

Suggested Citation

  • Xin Meng, 2023. "The People’s Republic of China’s 40-Year Demographic Dividend and Labor Supply: The Quantity Myth," Asian Development Review (ADR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 40(02), pages 111-144, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:adrxxx:v:40:y:2023:i:02:n:s0116110523400048
    DOI: 10.1142/S0116110523400048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0116110523400048
    Download Restriction: Open Access
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0116110523400048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    demographic dividends; labor supply; People’s Republic of China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:adrxxx:v:40:y:2023:i:02:n:s0116110523400048. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/adr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.