The Chinese economy may well have grown anyway; correlation is not causation. It was not the one child policy that has caused China’s incredible economic growth but the opening up of the Chinese economy to the market.  Moreover the economic benefits from the one child policy do not come without costs.  “An associate professor of economics at Columbia University, Lena Edlund, found that a 1% increase in the ratio of males to females equates to an increase in violent and property crime of as much as 6%, "suggesting that male sex ratios may account for 28% to 38% of the rise in crime.”  Further to this, the economic benefits of the one child policy do not outweigh the harms to human rights that the one child policy causes.1  1 “One-Child Policy, Chine Crime Rise Linked by Study.” New Yorks Sun. 19-11-2007.