Economic Effects of Birth Control Technology in China - Essay Example

Economic effects of Birth Control technology in China Population explosion has been one of the main concerns in developing countries such as China and India. In these countries the per capita output growth is often slowed by high birth rates. Traditional values, ignorance of birth control technology, and labor intensive farming all play a role in population explosion. After the realization that the continued population growth will have a drastic impact on economic and social systems, many developing countries experiencing high birth rates have adopted population control policies (Carol and Wang, 552-569). China is a country with the largest population in the world. Though China has a huge population, it has a weak economic foundation with relatively inadequate per-capita resources. In fact, China is facing many contradictions and problems of economic and social development that are closely associated with the issue of population (The Information Office of the State Council). Balancing of this population was a key element in Chinas economic success. The three basic economic factors of production are land, labor and capital, and a countrys population level determines how much labor is available. The higher the population, the more labor. However, when the level of available labor significantly surpasses a countrys other resources, the factors of production become unbalanced, leading to a labor surplus that causes problems like unemployment and insufficient healthcare and education (Head-Jones, 2004). The Peoples Republic of China is the only country to use quotas on child bearing decisions. In 1970, the government issued three reproductive norms: late marriage, longer spacing between births and fewer children. Men were encouraged to marry no earlier than 28 yrs old (25 yrs in rural areas) and women no earlier than 25 yrs old (23 yrs in rural areas). After the first child, couples were encouraged to allow four years between any subsequent births. The fewer children norm suggested two children for urban families and three for rural ones. In 1979, authorities limited households to only one child (Carol and Wang, 552-569). The greatest pressure on Chinas agriculture, particularly grain production, is the continuous growth of the population and constant shrinkage of the cultivated land. In 1993, despite a bumper harvest witnessed in Chinas grain production, the per-capita share of grain was only 387.3 kilogrammes. Predictions show that Chinas per-capita share of grain will remain at the low level of less than 400 kilogrammes of crude grain for a long time due to the continued growth of the population size in the future (Information Office of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, 2004). If China fails to effectively check the over-rapid growth of the population and alleviate the great pressure created by the population growth on cultivated land, forests and water resources, an ecological and environmental deterioration will become unavoidable in the coming decades, intensely endangering the minimum living conditions of the great majority of the Chinese people as well as the sustainable development of their society and economy. Chinas reform and opening to the outside world as well as its economic development have created a favorable socioeconomic environment for family planning, while the achievements of family planning have in turn created a favorable population environment for the continuous development of the economy, the improvement of the peoples living standards as well as the overall progress of society. The Chinese government holds that the issue of population is fundamentally one of development. Population is closely and inseparably related to economic and social development. Therefore, China always considers population and family planning an important component part of the strategy for the sustained national economic and social development, and they are planned and implemented together with economic and social issues. Since Chinas reform and opening to the outside world, the development of national economy, science, technology, education, public health and social welfare has played an active and encouraging role in changing peoples concept of fertility and in lowering the birth rate. Chinese government has taken several initiatives to control population. The government has proposed that the rural areas should combine family planning with developing economy, which will help peasants to become better off through hard work, and building progressive and happy families. Through providing service to peasants in production, livelihood and fertility, and above all through helping families practicing family planning to become better off, more and more families were guided to have less children and to improve their financial situation as soon as possible. This is not only good for accelerating rural economic development, increasing peasants income, and improving their living standard, but it can also make them realize from their immediate interests the benefit of having less children, gradually changing their attitudes towards fertility, increasing their awareness and enthusiasm for carrying out family planning. Rural women not only take an active part in these activities but they also benefit mostly from them (Information Office of the State Council Of the Peoples Republic of China, 2004). After the end of the Second World War and subsequent Civil War, the reduction in age-specific mortality in China was exceptionally rapid, particularly among infants and young children. It is plausibly attributed in part to an egalitarian distribution of available food and widespread control and treatment of infectious disease (Prescott and Jamison, 45–56). Life expectancy at birth increased in China from about 38 years in 1950 to 64 years in 1978, although it fell back during the politically exacerbated famine of 1959–61 (Johnson, 103–109); it then continued to grow to 69 years by 1995. As a direct consequence of this success in improving health, the annual rate of population growth in China, which was about 1.3% per year in the period 1945–55, increased to 3.2% per year between 1965 and 1970 (Maddison, 1998). Chinese economic growth since the mid-1970s is impressive by world standards (Johnson, 1990; Maddison, 1998). Some of the studies conducted show that preference shifts, involving education, health care and the employment and social status of women, can generate a statistically significant long-run decline in fertility growth. However, the governments enforcement power can explain some short-run movements in fertility. Besides, with the strong influence of the communist party, the government can easily regulate an individuals life, including control over housing, employment and salaries (Schultz, 245-267). China’s unusually rapid fertility decline means that it will also face undergo a more rapid and severe process of ageing. China’s 2000 census revealed that the shares of the older population had risen to 10.5 and 7.1 per cent for those aged 60 and 65 above, respectively, from 7.6 and 4.9 per cent in 1982. China’s rapid fertility reduction and its recent low fertility levels and improved life expectancy will accelerate Chinas ageing process in the near future (Feng and Mason, 1-18). Finally, it is evident that China’s rapid fertility decline in the 1970s has brought it a substantial demographic dividend. This coincided with the countries recent economic boom, thus further improving an already rapidly growing and dynamic economy. An abundant labour supply, combined with relatively small shares of younger and older dependents, not only helped to make China become the world’s factory at the turn of the twenty-first century, but also contributed to increasing output per capita and thus the standard of living. Work Cited Carol, A. S. and Wang, P. "Can Government Enforcement Permanently Alter Fertility? The Case of China", Economic Inquiry, October (1995), p 552-569. Feng, W. and Mason, A. Demographic Dividend and Prospects for Economic Development in China, United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Social and Economic Implications of Changing Population Age Structures, Mexico City, August 31-September 2, 2005, UN/POP/PD/2005/5, 25 July 2005, 1-18. 11 October 2006 Head-Jones, A. The Economics of Chinese Birth Planning. 2004. About.com – Economics. (2006). 30 September, 2006. . Information Office of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Family Planning in China, 28 December 2004, 11 October 2006 . Johnson, D. G. The People’s Republic of China, 1978–90, (1990) San Francisco: ICS Press. Johnson, D. G. ‘China’s Great Famine: Introductory Remarks,’ China Economic Review (1998) 9, 103–109. Maddison, A. Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run, (1998) Paris: OECD Development Centre. Prescott, N. and D. T. Jamison, The Distribution and Impact of Health Resource Availability in China, International Journal of Health Planning and Management (1985) 1, 45–56. Schultz, T. P. Human Resources in China: The Birth Quota, Returns to Schooling, and Migration, Pacific Economic Review, 9: 3 (2004) 245–267. The Information Office of the State Council, Chinas Population and Development in the 21st Century: White Paper on Population in China. 11 October 2006 Read More