Harnessing the Demographic Dividend in Africa Through Lessons From East Asia's Experience

Abstract

Notably, East Asian Economies successfully capitalized on shifts in their age structures to gain a boost in economic productivity, a phenomenon known as the demographic dividend. Nowadays, despite the hitherto sluggish pace of Africa’s transition, experts remain optimistic that similar transformation in Africa may lead to faster development in coming decades. The paper attempts to answer the following three questions: (i) Can natural resource development help African economies harness its demographic dividend? (ii) as China forty years long, demographic dividend draws to an end, China is actively trying to capture fresh economic opportunities in higher-value-added productive activity. Can Africa seize this opportunity provided by its own emerging demographic dividend era? (iii) Can imitation game help African economies harness its demographic dividend? Arguably, for African economies to imitate the East Asian miracle and harness a maximum demographic dividend, they should adhere to these three mechanisms: labor supply, savings, and human capital.