Demography, human capital, and economic growth

The Asian MetaCentre, IIASA, and the Wittgenstein Center (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU) organized two workshops at the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI), Shanghai University, attracting participants from more than 20 countries from around the world.

A workshop on modeling and projecting sub-national population trends was held from 7 to 11 April 2017. The event focused on the analysis of recent trends in subnational (provincial) populations stratified by age, sex, education, and urban/rural place of residence. It also looked at developing alternative scenarios for the future following the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) narratives and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) scenarios.

Image © ADRI, Shanghai University.

More than 25 participants, primarily from Asia, developed country/region specific population models for Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. During the workshop, demographic and data issues in each country were discussed, followed by an introduction to the methodology of multistate demography. A hands-on training session with an R-package (MSDem, Multistate Demography) was also conducted. The results are expected to be of high policy relevance for national and sub-national planning in the countries concerned.

The first Asian summer school on demography, human capital, and economic growth, took place from 19 to 23 June 2017. The school hosted more than 15 PhD students and postdocs from around the world and focused on how demographic trends and improving educational attainment impact economic growth around Asia. Participants engaged in discussions about the so-called first and second demographic dividends and on the role of human capital as a determinant of economic development. Leading international experts from IIASA, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), and ADRI gave lectures providing overviews of the state of knowledge in these fields.