Demographic Determinants of Economic Growth in BRICS and selected Developed Countries

Demographic advantage contributes a large share of economic growth. This study tries to find out how far the presence of demographic window in BRICS countries is affecting efficiently in the growth of their economies compared to few selected developed economies (Japan, UK and USA). It is seen in this study that the contribution of demographic component (growth of share of worker in population) in growth of per capita GDP is higher in BRICS countries (except Russian Federation) compared to that of the developed nations. This study also finds out that the speed of convergence to steady state equilibrium income for BRICS is faster than that of the eight countries (BRICS and three developed nations) together. Education has a positive effect on economic growth for eight country model. The effect of growth of working age population to population ratio on growth in per capita GDP is more in case of BRICS countries. This indicates the substantial effect of demographic component on economic growth of BRICS countries particularly for China, India and South Africa since they are still going through the demographic dividend phase of transition.