China and the One-Child-Policy

It was announced last week that China would make changes to its Family Planning Policy
moving from a one-child policy to a two-child policy.

Upon hearing this an old Freakanomics radio podcast, Misadventures in Baby-making, from 2011 came to mind. It touches on the interesting story of an economist, Geert Jan Olsder, who may have potentially and accidentally influenced China's one child policy. You can read more about Olsder and there's a link to the podcast here: http://freakonomics.com/2011/11/04/the-academic-origins-of-chinas-one-child-policy/

If you are interested in reading more academic research about China's one-child policy our online library databases such as Nexis UK provide access to international newspaper articles and our business databases provide access to academic research on the topic from a range of different perspectives both economic and social.

http://www.dit.ie/library/subjects/businessandeconomics/

What Will be the Top Five Global Economies in 2020?

According to Euromonitor, by 2020, China and Russia will have displaced USA and Germany respectively in the top five global economies. For more details, see Euromonitor's blog.

Other recent postings to Euromonitor's blog include a video on the rising importance of sub-Saharan Africa,  a posting on what opportunities does Africa's rising middle class provide? and a graph of the BRIC's move towards higher paid employment in 2012.