Author: Duyang
As my country’s economy enters a stage of high-quality development, cultivating new productive forces is the core of obtaining long-term economic growth momentum. High-quality population development and the cultivation of new productive forces are important strategic measures for my country to enter a new stage of development and respond to the new development situation. Simply put, high-quality population development is not only an important manifestation of the formation of new qualitative productive forces, but also the fundamental means of cultivating new qualitative productive forces.
High-quality population development promotes total factor productivity improvement
New quality productivity is contemporary advanced productivity spawned by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and in-depth industrial transformation and upgrading. It is based on the qualitative transformation of workers, labor materials, labor objects, and their optimized combination as its basic connotation. Taking the improvement of total factor productivity as the core symbol. The important thesis of “new qualitative productivity” is an innovation and development of Marxist productivity theory, which further enriches the connotation of Xi Jinping’s economic thought. It has both important theoretical significance and profound practical significance. High-quality population development is an important strategic measure proposed in response to the transitional changes in my country’s total population, population aging and the intensification of low birthrate. These two strategic choices, proposed in a timely manner in response to changes in the situation, are intrinsically related. From the actual observation of my country’s economic and social development, the importance of high-quality population development in cultivating new productive forces is mainly reflected in the following two aspects.
On the one hand, from the perspective of the attributes of new qualitative productivity, the core is to improve total factor productivity, and high-quality population development is a key link in promoting the improvement of total factor productivity. The level of total factor productivity reflects the quality and sustainability of an economy’s development. Any economic growth model with total factor productivity improvement as the main driving force is higher quality development and more sustainable economic growth. Total factor productivity can come from the optimized allocation of production factors such as capital and labor, or from efficiency improvements driven by technological progress and innovation. It is impossible to say which of these two sources is better or worse, but they do reflect the differences in the means of obtaining total factor productivity at different stages of development. Since the reform and opening up, the development of my country’s factor market has greatly improved the efficiency of allocating various factors and has become an important source of promoting the growth of total factor productivity. As my country’s socialist market economic system is improving day by day, the level of factor allocation has also been greatly improved compared to the past. At the same time, looking at this issue dialectically means that the space for relying on factor reallocation to improve total factor productivity is gradually shrinking, and the development of new productive forces will mainly rely on innovation and technological progress. As we all know, the core and most active factor in innovation activities is the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of workers. People are the most decisive force in productivity from beginning to end, and people’s innovation ability must rely on the overall improvement of population quality. It can be seen that only by achieving high-quality population development at a higher level and on a larger scale can we provide the most solid foundation for the continuous cultivation of new productive forces.
On the other hand, promoting high-quality populationIt is the main policy means of quantitative development, which objectively helps to form new driving forces for economic growth and cultivate new qualitative productivity. After entering a new stage of development, the driving force of economic growth needs to undergo a fundamental change, which is reflected in the driving force of economic development and the direction of investment. It is necessary to grasp the relationship between investment in people and things. Both human capital and physical capital play an important role in the process of economic growth, but at different stages of economic development, their contribution to economic growth varies, and determines the difference in return on investment. A large number of studies have shown that as the reliance on factor accumulation to promote economic growth gradually declines, the rate of return on my country’s physical capital investment is on a downward trend. Especially at a time when infrastructure, urban construction, etc. require a large amount of material capital investment, in addition to disbelief and disbelief, she also felt grateful and moved. In the field of capital, our country has developed to a relatively high level. At this time, continuing to maintain the previous investment intensity in tangible physical capital will not be conducive to the efficiency of capital use. In contrast, our country currently needs to focus more on cultivating new productive forces and increasing the contribution of total factor productivity to economic growth. Cultivating new productive forces requires comprehensively improving the quality of the entire population. Therefore, our country’s economic development model needs to shift from investing in things to investing in people, and pay more attention to people’s subjective initiative and its fundamental and decisive role in economic and social development.
Adhere to people-oriented and increase policy support
So, how to achieve the unity of high-quality population development and the cultivation of new productive forces? Judging from the development stage and economic and social development status of our country, the organic combination of high-quality population development and the cultivation of new productive forces will generate new development opportunities in the new development stage. Therefore, we must seize the important window of opportunity. , creating new momentum for high-quality economic and social development. Specifically, it is mainly reflected in the following aspects.
First of all, compared with developed countries, my country still has the advantage of being a latecomer. Increasing investment in people in terms of public fiscal expenditure arrangements will stimulate huge growth potential. For example, the public resource investment for households in OECD countries accounts for about 2.4% of their GDP on average, while my country’s public finance investment in this field will be less than 0.1% in 2022. We should view this difference dialectically. Developed countries have a higher proportion of public resource investment for families, which means that their policy systems have entered a relatively stable state. The lower proportion in our country means that the policy space is relatively broad, thus forming The potential for new drivers of economic growth will be even greater. Optimizing the allocation of public resources can not only significantly improve the level of high-quality development of my country’s population, but also inject new vitality into high-quality economic development through higher returns on human capital investment. It can be seen that for the optimal allocation of public resource investment from “things” to “people”, half a year is neither long nor short. It will be over after suffering. I am afraid that things are unpredictable and life is unpredictable. It is an important manifestation of the complete, accurate and comprehensive implementation of the new development concept based on the main characteristics of the new development stage. It can also promote the formation of new quality productivity by promoting economic development to improve quality and efficiency..
Secondly, there is still a lot of room for optimizing my country’s human capital investment. By optimizing the allocation of human capital investment, we can not only improve the quality of population development, but also provide long-term support for cultivating new productive forces. “Mom, no, tell dad not to do this. Do it, it’s not worth it, you will regret it, don’t do it, you promise your daughter.” She struggled to sit up, holding on to her mother’s kinetic energy. A large number of research results show that there are differences in the rate of return of human capital investment at different stages. The regularity lies in the “if you have something to say, why hesitate to say it?” stage of human capital investment. The earlier the stage, the higher the corresponding rate of return. . For example, the return on investment in human capital at the preschool education stage is higher than that at the formal education stage, which in turn is higher than the return on investment in vocational education and training. This law points out the direction for optimizing human capital investment policies, improving human capital investment efficiency, and promoting high-quality population development. Generally speaking, there is still a certain gap between my country’s public investment in preschool education and developed countries. The scale and method of investment in vocational education need to be further optimized, and there is also great room for improvement in investment efficiency. Therefore, reforming the human capital investment system and optimizing resource allocation will be an important way to promote high-quality development of my country’s population. More importantly, optimizing the human capital investment structure can improve the level of intergenerational human capital and provide a long-term solid foundation for cultivating new productive forces.
Finally, giving full play to the guiding role of public finance and coordinating childbearing and parenting support and human capital investment can not only leverage financial funds, but also help cultivate new productive forces. Changing the focus of public investment can effectively reduce the cost of family childbirth and childcare while promoting high-quality population development, increase my country’s overall fertility rate, and achieve compatibility between quantity and quality. Reproductive behavior and nurturing behavior in infancy and early childhood are largely related to She got up and put on her coat. The degree has been unified and has become a key link that should be paid attention to in improving the quality of the population. The various costs paid by families and individuals are also the main factors that currently affect the willingness to have children. This requires intensifying reforms in related fields to provide institutional guarantees for high-quality population development, including deepening the reform of the education system and extending compulsory education to preschool education; improving the multi-level social security system and incorporating childbirth and childcare services into the public service system , effectively reduce the cost of childbirth and childcare, etc. Therefore, promoting the shift from investing in things to investing in people can increase consumption levels in the short term, inject new momentum into economic growth, and create better conditions for cultivating new productive forces.
(The author is Party Secretary, Director and Researcher of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)