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The Impact of China's One-Child Policy on Its Economic Growth Over Time

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: What is the impact of China’s one-child policy on its economic growth over the years? This paper will show that the standard econometric estimation conceals the takeoff effect and thus underestimates the economic impact of demographic changes. In effect, the impact of China’s one-child policy moved the timing of the economic take off by a decade. The original intent of the one-child policy was for economical purposes. The authorities envisioned reducing the demand of natural resources, reducing the rate of exploitation, and reducing unemployment caused by surplus labor, and maintaining a steady labor rate. 100 words

Keywords: economic transition, one-child policy, and demographic changes. JEL Classification:

1. Introduction
At the start of China’s economic reforms in late 1970s, the Chinese leadership established population control as one of its main priorities. The post-Mao leadership believed that China population control was the key to ensure growth in per capita income. This led to the elevation of the one-child policy. The one-child policy of China was the official family planning policy that was aimed at controlling the population of China. The one-child was introduced in 1979 mainly to help in alleviating economic, social and environmental problems in China. It was estimated by demographers that the policy helped avert about 200 million births between 1979 and 2009 although some other estimates puts it at 400 million. About two and half decades after the

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