Impact of Demographic Variables on Economic Growth in South Asian Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

This study find the impact of demographic variables on economic growth in selected South Asian countries; Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri-Lanka using panel data from 1976 to 2017. Fertility rate and life expectancy are used as demographic variables and GDP is used to indicate the economic growth. Panel unit root tests including Levin-Lin & Chu, Im-Pesaran & Shin, ADF-Fisher χ2, PP-Fisher χ2 are applied to check the stationary of variables. Pedroni and Kao Panel Co-integration are employed to test the co-integration among variables. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) estimators are obtained for long run relationship. Results show that total fertility rate and life expectancy have significant impact on economic growth in these four South Asian countries. For example, one unit increase in total fertility rate depresses the economic growth by 0.106 units. However, economic growth is accelerated by 0.196 units due to one year increase in life expectancy.