By Zhang Bingzi, Member of the Research Team on “The Waxing and Waning of a State and the Role of Human Capital” of DRC

Research Report Special Issue No.13, 2016 (Total 1488)

Abstract: China is facing the challenge of rapid population aging. Traditional industrialization and urbanization supported by cheap labor is no longer sustainable. At the same time, great pressure is resulting from reforming and perfecting the pension insurance system, old-age service system and medical service system. Inappropriate social policy is affecting China's ability to cope with population aging: restrictive childbearing policy is not yet formed, so is the public policy system that promotes the sharing of childrearing responsibility between family and society and between husband and wife, making it hard to stable fertility rate on a reasonable level; human capital accumulation of adequate labor force is not enough, and labor participation rate remains low. The core of solving the population aging challenge lies in the following three points:.First, we should slow down the rise of dependency ratio. Age structure, health condition and employment opportunities should all be taken into consideration when we fix up the dependency ratio. Second, we should enhance productivity efficiency, implement proper intergenerational distribution, and guarantee the improvement of people’s living standard when dependency ratio is increased. Third, we should supply more suitable services and products for the aged. And in terms of realizing these three points, social policy could play an important role.

Key words: human capital, population aging, social policy