Is Demography Destiny? The Economic Implications of Iraq's Demography (Webinar)

LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

This webinar was the launch of Alexander Hamilton's latest report 'Is Demography Destiny? The Economic Implications of Iraq's Demography' published under the LSE Conflict Research Programme–Iraq. In this report, Hamilton examines the fiscal and economic implications of Iraq’s current demographic trajectory and finds that, given Iraq’s almost total dependence on oil for government revenues, slight changes in the demographic transition rate could result in significant cumulative per capita expenditure changes – equivalent to $2.9bn. This paper combines the data on Iraq’s demography with projections on economic growth and oil revenues to examine how variations in demographic transition might affect public finances and hence the viability of the current social contract and offers recommendations for policy-makers.