POPULATION ECONOMICS: A SURVEY OF RECENT RESEARCH

Abstract

The modern revival of economic research in the field of population which has occurred over the past 25 years represents a return to a traditional area of inquiry in political economy. The Malthusian theory of population established a framework for the economic analysis of population and demographic phenomena. However economic analysis of population questions declined and became increasingly preoccupied with a narrow range of problems namely the economic consequences of demographic change for well over 5 decades following the ascendancy of neoclassical economics. The focus began to shift in the late 1950s with the outline of microeconomic frameworks for the analysis of fertility. These paradigms explicitly acknowledged the costs benefits quality and quantity of children and the socioeconomic factors which determine the demand for children. These frameworks signalled a move away from the focus on economic aspects of fertility to that of the economics of the family and household. Another important and influential trend addressed the causes of population changes and focused on long term secular changes for which sociological as well as economic theories of fertility were developed. The extension of modern economic analysis to the study of demographic phenomena is mainly due to the work of GS Becker. His recent book A Treatise on the Family (1981) is reviewed in this article along with 4 other recent works: RA Easterlin (1980); J. Simon and P. Lindert (1981); J. Simon (1981); and D. Eversley and W. Kollmann (1982). The major contributions and limitations of each are critically discussed and their influence on theory and research in population economics and demography is assessed.