| Since the publication of An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus, the size of the population has been intensely debated. However, as many developing countries went simultaneously through fast economic development and drastic demographic shift since the1960s, the relationship between the age structure which stemmed from fast demographic shift and economic growth has become the new research hotspot. Theoretically, this age structure is beneficial to economic growth for it facilitates vast labor supply and drives the social savings high. For all these reasons, this beneficial age structure is called demographic dividend. Since the founding of the PRC, it has experienced swift demographic transition, and have formed demographic dividend. It makes both practical and academic sense to analyze the properties and economic-growth effect of the demographic dividend.This paper deals with the economic growth effect of the demographic dividend, and it extends research of this topic from two aspects:the variances of demographic dividend among regions within China and the indicators measuring the demographic dividend. First, the background of demographic dividend formation is analyzed, including the age structure change and the fast economic growth. Then, precise definition, measurement, characteristics and trends of the demographic dividends have been demonstrated to give readers a complete picture of demographic dividend. Next, growth regression model are employed to evaluate the effects of demographic dividends on economic growth rate. From the regression result, it has been learnt that the effects of the nominal dependency ratio is much higher than that of the real dependency ratio, which implies that a proportion of the demographic dividend has been wasted. Finally, the conditions and mechanism of the demographic dividend on economic growth has been outlined, also, policy advices for promoting labor participation have been offered. |
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