1. Click to edit Master title style
Click to edit Master subtitle style
14/06/2025 1
LD7198
Advances in
Responsible
International
Business: Contexts
and Challenges
LECTURE 5.2
Understanding
Demographic
Change
2. • Understand the importance of ever-changing demographics
• Discuss how it relates to International Business
• Reflect on changes in populations such as migration,
growth/decline, skills, etc.
• Link to shifts in cultural environments
Objectives
3. Demographics
What are they?
Population statistics (age groups, gender, fertility rates, migration)
Work-related statistics (employment, income, education)
Religion/Ethnicity
Inequalities
5. Population
Size
Birth Rate
Death Rate
Net migration
The issue of an ageing population?
How does this impact a country?
Implications for businesses?
6. Equality v
Inequality
Countries will have varying differences in income gap
Worldwide this gap has been widening
Argued that material benefits of industrialisation and other
forms of economic development only trickles done to a
minority of global population
Regional disparities are also common
Government spending and investment in one area over
another
Regional policies or pre-existing network
Climate or remote location – access to infrastructure –
sometimes historically bound.
Declining or extinct industries
Some have experienced redevelopment…
Tables and graphs in this lecture are from core text:
Dicken, Peter. Global Shift, Sixth Edition : Mapping the Changing
Contours of the World Economy, Guilford Publications, 2011.
12. A change in the nature and type
of employment
• Manufacturing v. services
• Gender related changes in workforce
• Geographic shifts:
• Location of employment
opportunities
• Urban decline
• Deindustrialisation
• Changes in the pattern of unemployment
– resurgence of unemployment
13. Aspects of the labour market
Quality of the labour
Skills
Education and training
Allocation of labour
Is the labour market flexible? Can the appropriate labour be matched to
appropriate opportunity?
Labour markets are more efficient in some countries than others.
For example, UK has more flexible labour market arrangements than the rest of Europe
– France, Spain etc. set limits on type and length of work. The UK has more on part-
time, fixed term or temporary contracts.
Employers in UK have greater freedom
HOWEVER, labour markets are hard to quantify – informal v formal labour
markets
17. Are these possible explanations for the shifts?:
• Technological shifts? Increased efficiency through
innovation?
• Does this reduce employment opportunities or
CHANGE employment opportunities?
• ‘lifetime job system’ no longer exists
• What happened after the ‘golden age of growth’?
• Particular sectors affected – financial services,
automotive industry
• Globalization of production?
• Competition?
19. Do we need to update our understanding of
labour markets?
23. Characteristics and Forecasts
World population now around 7.1 billion (forecasted by UN at
10.1 billion by 2100 – dependent on fertility rates and other
variables)
Most substantial growth has occurred in developing countries
Fertility rates in developed countries: 1.7 children per woman,
Fertility rates in LDC: 4.4 children per woman.
Significant impact on age composition of population
Stark polarization between rich and poor in urban environment of
developing countries
29. The impact of
migration
• Home country and out-migration
• Helps reduce pressure on local labour
markets
• Remittances sent home boost individual
wealth but also wealth of country
• Almost $480 billion in 2011
• However, sensitive to downturns in host
countries
• Remittances tend to go to households
that are not impoverished
• Migrants are often young and active (this is a
loss to home country)
• “Brain drain”
30. The impact of
migration
Host country and in-migration
• Aids with population decline in some countries
• Most developed countries have a severe
shortage of labour (in low- AND high-
skilled sectors)
• Rigid immigration policies are therefore
usually not for the benefit of the host country
• BUT distribution of immigrants geographically is
uneven.
• Creates tension (sometimes through political
agendas)
31. Summary
The importance of understanding change in demographics
Key features of demography
Labour market shifts in recent years
Population shifts – growth, age, migration.
