Demographic Pressure and the Irish Famine: Malthus after Mokyr

Abstract

"This paper presents a fresh analysis of demographic pressure in pre-Famine Ireland. The crucial issue is one of measurement. Population pressure is taken as the ratio of population to non-reproducible natural resources, that is, land." The author develops a measure of land quality that is used to test the Malthusian hypothesis. "The central finding of this paper may be stated quite simply: when proper account is given to the measurement of land quality and demographic pressure, then the Malthusian hypothesis that income per capita decreases with population pressure is not rejected by the evidence of pre-Famine Ireland."