The Study Of The Impact Of Education And Age Structure Of Labor Force On Economic Growth Of East Asia

The population age structures of East Asian economies(including ASEAN)are changing,leading to the changes in the numbers of labor force.So how can East Asian economies make better use of labor force to maintain the economic growth in this case?In addition to the numbers of labor force,the variations of population age structure also change the internal age structure of the labor force which is always neglected in economic studies.The education level of the labor force is also a labor attribute which is paid more and more attention on.Considering these points,this paper hopes to answer the question mentioned above by studying the status of education and age structure of labor force in the economic growth of East Asia.The part of literature review of this paper summarizes the miracle of East Asian economic growth and the difficulty encountered now,and describes how the education and population age structure influence the economic growth.It is found that most of the literatures studied the impact of population age structure change,which is named "Demographic Dividend",but a little of them has taken the internal structure of labor force into consideration.The part of current-status description analyzes and compares the education level and age structures of labor force of the East Asian countries?regions?.The conclusion is that the educational level shows an upward trend,but there are big differences among East Asian countries?regions?.The age structure of the labor force is no doubt presented as the aging structure in countries?regions? like Japan and Korea,and the age structure is younger in some Southeast Asian countries?regions? while the proportion of older workers is also increasing,which can even be more than the young labor force in these countries?regions?.The part of theoretical mechanism first introduces the theoretical bases,including human capital theory,endogenous economic growth model,and the life cycle theory.Then the part summarizes the mechanisms of the impact of education and age structure on the economic development which can be the foundation of the empirical analysis.In the empirical analysis,the data of 12 major East Asian countries?regions? and areas from 1995 to 2014 are used to take the basic model regression and moreover,the contracts are conducted between the two types of the East Asian countries?regions? which are divided into two categories according to the economic development situation.In addition,the total factor productivity(TFP)represented by the Malmquist index are utilized as an alternative variable of output per person to further examine the impact of the education level and age structure on East Asian countries?regions?.By taking the empirical analysis,the conclusions are drawn:(1)The extension of the average years of schooling is significant positive for economic growth,but it cannot be used to explain the differences in economic growth between East Asian countries?regions?;(2)The impact of age structure of labor force on economic growth is:the effect of labor force from 15 to 29 years old is negative,while the effect of 30-44 is positive,but it is less than that of 45-64.This conclusion explains well the reason for postponing retirement in China;(3)The effect of labor force from 45 to 64 on economic growth is lower in high-income countries?regions? than that in middle-income and low-income countries?regions?,and the difference is amplified in models with TFP as explanatory variables;(4)The impact of control variables on GDP per capita in the article shows that the factor inputs,FDI,and urbanization is significantly positive,while high trade dependence is not conductive to promoting GDP per capita.Finally,this paper puts forward some suggestions on the educational investment and labor policy according to the empirical analysis results for East Asian countries?regions?.