This course will introduce the role of demographic transition in economic growth. Specifically, two parts will be included. First, we will begin with the models with endogenous fertility. Then, the contribution of demographic dividends to economic growth will be studied. Besides, we will also discuss the new patterns and research topics on fertility choices. The second part of this course will focus on the economic problems caused by population aging. Policies that aiming at alleviating the problem will be explored as well.

To study the aforementioned topics, the demographic statistics of global trends and country features will be investigated as an introduction. Then, theoretical and empirical studies in the literature will be explored. Dynamic programming and recursive competitive equilibrium are the tools that we will review in class. Simple computational methods for analyzing these models will also be introduced.