Population Aging and Healthcare Costs in China and Japan

Author

Sean BrownFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Croft Institute for International Studies

First Advisor

Gang Guo

Second Advisor

Vanessa Parks

Third Advisor

Oliver Dinius

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This study focuses on the natural demographic phenomenon known as population aging and its intersection with healthcare expenditures. Healthcare spending can be a major burden on a country’s economy, so it is important to accurately assess the connection between these two factors. Population aging occurs when countries reach a point in their demographic transitions characterized by declining total fertility rates and high life expectancy. This natural but undesirable position has implications for virtually all aspects of society, and all countries are trending towards aging. This study examines the cases of China and Japan in an effort to assess the validity of the wider, global observation of the relationship between population aging and healthcare expenditures. Cross-sectional and time series quantitative analyses reveal a statistically significant, non-spurious correlation between the two variables with a high degree of magnitude. This study discusses the implications of those findings within the broader context of population aging as a global issue.

Recommended Citation

Brown, Sean, "Population Aging and Healthcare Costs in China and Japan" (2022). Honors Theses. 2466.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2466

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.