Population and development in East Asia

In this paper, the future development challenges in Mongolia are investigated through the application of multistate population projections by age, sex, and education. The present situation of the country is interesting on many aspects and its population development contrasts with what is observed elsewhere in East Asia. As the result of a very swift fertility decline in the early 1990s, the country is opening its demographic window of opportunity. Further, Mongolia became nowadays the fastest growing economy in Asia thanks to the recent exploitation of its mining resources. Yet, these favorable factors may be hindered by a series of challenges. On the demographic side, the fertility has increased by about 0.6-0.7 children since its nadir in 2005 to 2.61 children per woman in 2011. By introducing sudden shocks in the age structural transition, this fertility increase bears a series of challenges for the planning of the national development. Whether Mongolia can set the most appropriate conditions to benefit from its current economic boom remains an open question. Based on different assumptions on the future course of fertility and education in the country, the implications and challenges for development of the future population composition of Mongolia are discussed.

This study explored women’s career development after childbearing in the context of South Korea from an individual level perspective. Data used for analysis are from wave 1 to 10 of Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). A 3-staged study analysis was designed. Logistic and hazard regression models were estimated, respectively. The results showed that entitlement to the maternity leave stimulated eligible women’s immediate return to the labor force after the first birth, especially after the launch of the job-protected Maternity Protection Act in 2001. Long work experience, strong earning power and great human capital accumulation also fostered women’s job continuity. A V-shaped timing of return was discovered for women who took a timeout after childbirth. They preferred to return either sooner or at a later time. Women’s return intensity was especially pronounced during the aftermath of financial crisis (1998-2001). Women's urgent desire to resume employment at critical period to protect families against social insecurity was argued to have contributed to the pattern. The length of timeout reduced women's chance of upward occupational move upon return but increased their likelihood of downward occupational move. Downward move was especially salient during the recession period and thereafter.

China has experienced an extraordinary mortality transition over the last 60 years. However, mortality decline has not been consistent and uniform across all ages. Changes in health interventions and programs have particularly heavily affected health and mortality at old ages. This paper examines trends in China’s old-age mortality and its underlying determinants. Three stages of old-age mortality changes can be identified. Sharp fall in old-age mortality from the early 1950s to the early 1970s, stagnation in mortality improvement during the 1980s-1990s, and large decline again from 2000 to 2010. Life expectancy in China was rising overall, but perceived health expectancy at age 60 had stalled between 1992 to 2000. The last 10 years have seen marked improvement in both life expectancy and perceived health expectancy. Mortality change has been more evident for females than for males. There are reflections of social, economic and medical policy changes in each of the phases, which may have different impacts on different population subgroups. Deterioration in health at old ages was observed as a consequence of the economic and medical reform, while old-age mortality improvement is largely a result of government efforts in establishing urban and rural medical insurance systems.

This paper clarifies that the development of education will not certainly promote the economic development by analyzing the situation in China.
As the development of education can enhance human capital and then raise the labor productivity, people usually take it for granted that education progress will lead to economic growth. Though it is true that human capital can be improved by education, the development of education doesn’t equal to more human capital or higher labor productivity. The education structure should be taken into account when analyzing how much human capital has been improved. China’s potential human capital has been increasing because of the development of education, but it can hardly turn into real human capital. This is because the education structure of China mismatches economic structure. Though the graduates have learned a lot in universities, they can hardly put what they’ve learned in use. A lot of potential human capital has been wasted and China’s labor productivity is still low.
In China, the development of education has not contributed much to the economic development, which may redirect collective consciousness. It also alerts us to the fact that only when education structure matches economic structure, can it promote economic development.

Access to affordable and clean energy is key to the sustainable energy security of the nation. Local availability, perceive to be ‘cheap’ make biomass as preferred fuel for cooking in rural India. In order to reduce the reliance on biomass as fuel, government of India has been providing LPG/PNG at subsidised rate to its people. However almost in entirety LPG/PNG subsidies are cornered by the urban areas and rural rich. Analysis of data from Census of India 2011 reconfirms the above stated statement. There are spatial pockets of concentrated usage of LPG/PNG. Developed (relatively) states and urban India have benefited more than the Indo-gengetic belt, central tribal and hilly regions of India. Within urban India, million plus cities are biggest beneficiaries. By curtailing subsidy, government of India will be able to reduce the subsidy burden but is risking the marginal people (Women, urban poor, people and just above poverty line). Paper argues that there should be policy support to address the issue of indoor air pollution and transfer of cash should be made in the name of women rather than the head of the household. Alternatively government should promote and utilise the savings from LPG subsidy for renewable energy such as biogas, and solar energy.

The Republic of Korea is known as a homogenous country; a recent trend, however, is an increase in young women from other Asian countries who marry Korean men, which challenges the normative familial structure of Korean families and communities. Our analysis uses social media to examine the narrative of Koreans as they discuss what will be required of Korea to accept multicultural families and children. Three Korean web portals—Daum, Nate and Naver—were surveyed over the summer of 2012 for articles and comments on multicultural families. While we acknowledge that posters are not a representative sample of all Koreans, the web portals offer a slice of information about the public debate surrounding multicultural families. Korean web portals are a form of social communication that is not replicated in countries such as the United States; the web portals offer a timely assessment of public opinion that would be missed in nationally representative surveys. Preliminary findings show that the number of postings and concern about multi-cultural families has increased and that the public discourse on the internet is meaningful in the development of a community of “netizens” as a reflection of contemporary Korean society.

Nepal is at a historical period of social, economic and demographic transition. Having multiple transitions at once have provided rooms to explore the experiences that are undergoing on different avenues. This study attempts to explore the relation between gender dynamics and economic growth. Nepal is witnessing historical changes in gender dynamics in the last few decades. These changes are expected to add synergy effect on other socio-economic development. Using time series data for the period of 1990 to 2005, this study investigates to what extent gender equality in life expectancy, education, labour force participation and HDI promote economic growth of Nepal. First, this article calculates the gender equality using the auxiliary of UNDP's HDI calculation methodology in the above mentioned area. Second, this equality index is regressed with lagged differences of GDP per capita growth and the results are analyzed. Although different studies have shown gender inequality in above-mentioned indicators impede economic growth, this study finds no conclusive relationship in case of Nepal. While the gender equality is increasing considerably, economic growth is not yet supported by the increase. In the past 15 years female advantages in life expectancy, education attainment and labour force participation are remarkable.

The current study examines the role of educational expansion and son preference in the Korean fertility transition. Educational expansion contributes to fertility decline. The implication of son preference on fertility transition, however, is complicated. Son preference would delay fertility transition because strong son preference would lead to additional births among the sonless women. Induced abortion of female fetus due to son preference, instead, may reduce fertility. I examine how educational differentials in fertility changed, how the son preference effect on fertility changed over time, and how the son preference effect depended on women’s educational attainment. Using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), I estimate logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazard models. Preliminary results point to the followings. First, negative relationship between schooling and parity progression became stronger across birth cohorts. Second, positive relationship between sonlessness and parity progression also became stronger. Finally, son preference effect does not depend upon schooling. The significant interaction between sonlessness and cohort suggests that spread of effective contraceptive methods strengthened the effect of son preference on fertility, contributing to fertility decline.