Digital Transformation as a Demographic and Economic Integrated Policy for Southeast Asian Developing Countries

Taehwan Rhee, Jacob Wood and Jungsuk Kim
Additional contact information
Taehwan Rhee: Department of Economics, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
Jungsuk Kim: Department of Economics, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: The age of Southeast Asian developing countries’ populations is still younger than that of other regions around the world. However, recent statistics show that the tide is now turning in this regard, with many of these populations beginning to age at rates much faster than many other countries. Such developments require immediate policy action in order to create a sustainable path towards economic growth before demographic changes become less benign in the medium term. In this study, we discuss the economic consequences of population aging, increases in the economic support ratio, and a declining potential growth rate. We argue that it is essential for Southeast Asian developing countries to raise total factor productivity (TFP) growth rates so as to achieve more sustainable economic outcomes. By conducting panel regressions using data from 82 countries across the 1996–2019 study period, our study shows that increasing research and development (R&D) spending and the facilitation of structural changes that transform the digital economy landscape are key policy options that promote TFP growth.

Keywords: Southeast Asian developing countries; demographic transition; sustainable economic growth; digital economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/2857/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/5/2857/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:5:p:2857-:d:761723

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().