Ageing Population: What’s New?

Abstract

Demographics are becoming a big challenge for China. As the population ages, the returns on different factors of production – land, labour and capital – will change, as their relative scarcities will change. This will have far-reaching implications for China’s investment returns, economic policy and growth outlook. The introduction of family planning policies in the 1970s, with the implementation of the ‘one child’ policy in 1979, has led to a sharp slowdown in population growth in the following decades. With the ‘baby boomers’ now in their 40s, China is facing an unprecedented ageing process.