Population ageing, financial deepening and economic growth: Evidence from China

Abstract

Using a panel of 31 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2016, we investigated the impact of population ageing and financial deepening on economic growth. Based on the dynamic panel system GMM estimators, the empirical results address that both population ageing and financial deepening have a significantly positive impact on economic growth, while the interactions between them have a significantly negative effect on economic growth. From the perspective of total marginal effect, we also find that population ageing does contribute to economic growth but only when financial deepening is less than a threshold level; however, on the whole, financial deepening has an inhibitory effect on economic growth which increases with population ageing.