Cashing in on the Demographic Dividend: Is Bangladesh Moving in the Right Direction?
The demographic dividend contributes to a nation’s economic performance by increasing its per capita income, savings and investments. In recent decades, Bangladesh, like other South Asian countries, is passing through its demographic dividend phase, which can promote overall sustainable socioeconomic development of the country. This window of opportunity has a dynamic comparative advantage for Bangladesh compared to its corresponding countries vis-à-vis the youth labour force. This paper conducts a situational analysis of the demographic dividend in Bangladesh by examining data on labour market, savings rate and human capital from different national and international sources. The results from the situational analysis indicate that Bangladesh is yet to realize the demographic bonus. Currently, the country is suffering from higher youth unemployment, lower human capital development, shortage of skilled labour force, lower female labour force participation and fluctuating savings rate, all of which impedes the favorable impact of the demographic dividend on economic growth. The findings of this study depict a path for policymakers and stakeholders to prioritise to fully reap the benefits of the demographic dividend and achieve long-term socioeconomic development of the country.
Keywords
Demographic dividend, age structure, savings, human capital, economic growth, Bangladesh
Conflict of interest: All authors listed have contributed sufficiently to the study to be included as authors, and all those who are qualified to be authors are listed in this manuscript. To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest, financial or other, exists.
Research involving human participants and/or animals: The paper conducts a situational analysis of the demographic dividend in Bangladesh by examining data on labour market, savings rate and human capital from different national and international sources. Therefore, this paper does not involve human participants as well as animals directly.
© 2021 Sociological Demography Press
Population Review
Volume 60, Number 2, 2021
Type: Article, pp. 142-165
Cashing in on the Demographic Dividend: Is Bangladesh Moving in the
Right Direction?
Authors: Nusrat Jafrin, Rulia Akhtar, Muhammad Mehedi Masud, Deboshree Ghosh
Affiliations: Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, and Department of Population Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (Jafrin); Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research & Innovation, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (Akhtar); Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (Masud); Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (Ghosh)
Corresponding author/address: Nusrat Jafrin, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia, and Department of Population Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh;
email: [email protected]
Abstract
The demographic dividend contributes to a nation’s economic performance by increasing its per capita income, savings and investments. In recent decades, Bangladesh, like other South Asian countries, is passing through its demographic dividend phase, which can promote overall sustainable socioeconomic development of the country. This window of opportunity has a dynamic comparative advantage for Bangladesh compared to its corresponding countries vis-à-vis the youth labour force. This paper conducts a situational analysis of the demographic dividend in Bangladesh by examining data on labour market, savings rate and human capital from different national and international sources. The results from the situational analysis indicate that Bangladesh is yet to realize the demographic bonus. Currently, the country is suffering from higher youth unemployment, lower human capital development, shortage of skilled labour force, lower female labour force participation and fluctuating savings rate, all of which impedes the favorable impact of the demographic dividend on economic growth. The findings of this study depict a path for policymakers and stakeholders to prioritise to fully reap the benefits of the demographic dividend and achieve long-term socioeconomic development of the country.
Keywords
Demographic dividend, age structure, savings, human capital, economic growth, Bangladesh
Conflict of interest: All authors listed have contributed sufficiently to the study to be included as authors, and all those who are qualified to be authors are listed in this manuscript. To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest, financial or other, exists.
Research involving human participants and/or animals: The paper conducts a situational analysis of the demographic dividend in Bangladesh by examining data on labour market, savings rate and human capital from different national and international sources. Therefore, this paper does not involve human participants as well as animals directly.
© 2021 Sociological Demography Press
