Will population change sustain the 'Asian economic miracle'?

Publication Date: January 1997

Publisher: East-West Center

Author(s): Andrew Mason

Research Area: Economics; Population and demographics

Type: Report

Abstract:

For more than three decades the economic performance of eight East Asian economies has been the envy of the world. Though some of these "miracle economies" are now experiencing currency devaluations, stock market retrenchment, and slower growth, it would be premature to proclaim the end of the Asian economic miracle. A new analysis of these economies' growth shows that one of the key causes of success favorable demographics will persist for another two decades or more. Asian populations which were once dominated by children are now bulging with working-age adults. Their efforts have generated higher earnings, their tax dollars have funded enviable education systems, and their savings have financed spectacular rates of investment and economic growth. The favorable change in Asian populations is the result of an unusually rapid transition from high to low birth and death rates. The resulting population changes have created an unprecedented opportunity for economic growth. If governments continue to implement innovative and effective economic policies, another quarter-century of economic growth is well within the reach of most East Asian economies.