Population Pressures

IMF Blog, February 25, 2016

Source details

Title: Population Pressures
Author: Jeff Hayden
Date: February 25, 2016
Note: (Versions in عربي and Español)
Central premise: Multiple forces—aging, migration, urbanization, and longevity—are creating a more diverse and complex global demographic landscape; population growth alone does not capture the full story.

Common perceptions: “population growth” often evokes concerns about resources under stress, linked to Thomas Malthus and Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968).
Broader dynamics highlighted:
- Aging
- Migration
- Urbanization
- Longevity
Contrasting outcomes emphasized:
- Some countries face a problem of too few people, not too many.
- Some countries are positioned to realize a “demographic dividend” based on an expected boom in working-age adults.
- Gains possible if countries can boost female participation in the workforce.
Quotation on scale: David E. Bloom proposes options for managing what he calls “the most significant demographic transformation in human history.”

Lead piece: David E. Bloom (Harvard) - survey of forces shaping population growth today and policy options.
Other feature topics:
- Fiscal consequences of shrinking and aging populations.
- The role of women in offsetting problems of an aging population and shrinking workforce.
- Linkages between age and inflation.
- How sub-Saharan Africa can reap the benefits of its growing population.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton on China’s need for bold fiscal reforms.
IMF economists Paul Cashin and Mehdi Raissi on the economics of El Niño.
IMF Middle East Chief Masood Ahmed on plunging oil prices.
Rabah Arezki, Frederick van der Ploeg, and Frederik Toscani on the latest trend in natural resource finds.
Duvvuri Subbarao (former Reserve Bank of India governor) reflects on central bank communications in a first-person account.
Peter J. Walker profiles economist David Card, focusing on minimum wages, immigration, and education.

Tribute included to pop icon David Bowie, who passed away in January; F&D Managing Editor Marina Primorac recounts how Bowie’s face came to grace the front of the “Brixton pound,” a local currency circulating in the south London neighborhood where Bowie was born.

Source: Population Pressures — Jeff Hayden, February 25, 2016