• Table of Contents
    • Abstract
    • Keywords
    • Article
      • 1 Theory: modelling economic–demographic change
        • 1.1 One-sector growth models
        • 1.2 Saving
        • 1.3 Population-sensitive government spending
        • 1.4 Technological change: density, size and endogenous growth
        • 1.5 The bottom line
      • 2 Evolution of population-impacts thinking: 1950–90
        • 2.1 United Nations, 1953
        • 2.2 Coale and Hoover, 1958
        • 2.3 National Academy of Sciences, 1971
        • 2.4 United Nations, 1973
        • 2.5 Revisionism, 1980s and beyond
        • 2.6 Julian L. Simon, 1981
        • 2.7 National Academy of Sciences, 1986
      • 3 New paradigms for modelling demography's role in economic growth: 1990 and beyond
        • 3.1 Convergence growth models: a framework for assessing demography's impact
        • 3.2 Alternative demographic renderings within a convergence framework
        • 3.3 The bottom line
    • See Also
    • Bibliography
    • How to cite this article

economic demography

Allen C. Kelley and Robert M. Schmidt
From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008
Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume
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Abstract

Economic demography is an area of study that examines the determinants and consequences of demographic change, including fertility, mortality, marriage, divorce, location (urbanization, migration, density), age, gender, ethnicity, population size and population growth. This article reviews and critically evaluates important macroeconomic dimensions of the ‘population debates’ between the ‘optimists’ and the ‘pessimists’ since 1950. It concludes with an examination of demography in the popular ‘convergence’ growth models of the 1990s.
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Keywords

adult equivalency; aging; agricultural growth and population change; capital accumulation; convergence; demographic drag; demographic gift; demographic transition; diffusion of technology; diminishing returns; dismal science; economic demography; economic development; economic growth; education; endogenous growth; fertility; free rider problem; human capital; innovation; Kuznets, S.; labour productivity; learning-by-doing; life expectancy; life-cycle modelling; Malthus., T. R.; mortality; population density; population growth; population size; renewable resources; research and development; rule of law; saving; Simon, J. L.; subsistence; technical change
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Article

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How to cite this article

Kelley, Allen C. and Robert M. Schmidt. "economic demography." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 21 May 2013 <http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_D000075> doi:10.1057/9780230226203.0428

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