Health, Education and China’s Demographic Transition Since 1950

Abstract

China’s human capital — the health and education of the population — has played an important and under-appreciated role in China’s rapid economic development. Moreover, with the driving force of China’s economy transitioning toward human-capital-based endogenous growth in the 21st century, investments in human capital may be even more crucial for China’s future development. This paper focuses on China’s achievements in raising population health and education, and their interaction with demographic transition since the 1950s. The first section describes recent research on the determinants of China’s unprecedented increase in life expectancy in the Mao era, the foundation of China’s demographic, epidemiological and human capital transitions over the past half-century. The second section discusses human capital development during the reform era, including research on the returns to education in China, the educational gradient in health, and the social challenges presented by widening disparities in human capital.