Malthus's Theory Research Articles

SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR OF NOMADS

This research is carried out among nomadic societies. The objectives of this research were to study socio economic characteristics of nomads, with main focus on explaining the socio cultural factors and their effects on the reproductive behaviors of nomadic communities. Researchers interviewed 150 nomads who were selected as sample by using Purposive sampling technique. “Life history theory” and “Malthus theory of population” are used as theoretical framework. Results showed that nomadic reproductive behavior is highly affected by socio cultural factors like illiteracy, son preference, early marriages, forced marriages, tribal customs, and lack of health care facilities. It is concluded that socio cultural factors are responsible for the poor reproductive behavior of nomads in Pakistan. Findings also indicated that number of reproductive complications occurred among pregnant nomadic women due to inadequate health facilities, socio-cultural and demographic barriers which restricted them to use maternity services Keywords Nomads, reproductive behavior, socio cultural factors, health, women

Discovery of New Theory Analysis of Equilibrium Point Population Versus Food on Theory of Thomas Robert Malthus and Its Development (Case Study of Indonesia)

The future of humans on this tiny planet earth has entered a grim beginning in the midst of rapidly growing technological progress. How not, human life whose population is growing fast is not comparable to food as a source of life that grows slowly. This study aims to calculate the cross point or equilibrium point between population and food using the population series and food series of Thomas Robert Malthus original and the results of its development by Matius Irsan Kasau. The data and methods used are types of secondary data sourced from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS), which is processed by a mathematical method that compares the population with food in each series. The results of research with Indonesian data in 2010 showed that for the original Malthus theory with the number of children on average per couple of 4 people, the distance between generations 25 years, 75 years of life expectancy, population 237 million, food 66.5 million tons obtained equilibrium point occurred in 2085, namely in the third generation. As for Malthus’s theory of development results with an average number of children of 2.6 people, a distance between 23 years generation, and 69 years of life expectancy, the equilibrium point was obtained in 2171, namely the seventh generation of the current generation.

Socio-ecological trajectories in a rural Austrian region from 1961 to 2011: comparing the theories of Malthus and Boserup via systemic-dynamic modelling

ABSTRACT This paper investigates to what extent the theories of Thomas Robert Malthus and Ester Boserup are still useful to analyse population and land-use trajectories in an industrial society at a regional scale. Following a model-based approach toward long-term socio-ecological research, we built two system dynamic models, each representing one theory, and calculated socio-ecological trajectories from 1961 to 2011 for a study region located within the Eisenwurzen region in Austria. Comparing the model trajectories with empirical data reveals opposing results for the fit of the dynamics of ‘population and technology’ compared to ‘land use and technology’. Technology strongly influenced population development, whereas its impact on land-use intensity faded over time. Although these theories are usually seen as opposing, both models identify population development as a main driver for land-use changes, mainly population decreases that contributed to farmland abandonment. We find out-migration to be essential when applying the investigated theories to contemporary societies.

Relevansi Teori Scarcity Robert Malthus Dalam Perspektif Ekonomi Syariah

Purpose-The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of scarcity related to the theory proposed by Robert Malthus and its relevance today. As well as how Islam views the nature of scarcity. 
 Methods- This research is classified as library research, where the collection of library materials that are relevant to the research topic is the main strength of this research. In addition, this research can be categorized in the study of character studies, namely a systematic and critical study of Robert Malthus's economic thinking related to the theory of scarcity. 
 Findings- In Islamic economics, if we return to the problem of food scarcity that Malthus argues is caused by the explosion of the population that is not illuminated with the amount of food in the world, then in essence, Allah SWT has bestowed nature and its contents to meet human needs. Every human being already has a part of their respective benefits, so there can be no shortage in terms of food-related to the increase in population that occurs. 
 Implications- Ideally, Malthus's theory reminds us that population growth must still pay attention to environmental sustainability, meaning that it must be adjusted to the carrying capacity and environmental capacity.

Does population pressure induce farm intensification? Empirical evidence from Tigrai Region, Ethiopia

AbstractThe scarcity of land for crop and livestock production is critical in countries with growing populations. The idea that increasing population density leads to natural resource depletion and economic failure, as predicted by Malthus, or rather to farm intensification, as hypothesized by Boserup, motivates this research. This article examines how high population pressure in northern Ethiopia influences smallholders’ farm intensification by applying recursive estimation with a control function approach using data from 518 randomly selected farmers. Although our empirical results are more in favor of the Boserupian hypothesis, the findings also reveal that both Malthusian and Boserupian forces coexist. Consistent with Malthus theory, high population pressure is found to be associated with small farm size and herd size. Population pressure affected both technology use (breed cow, stall feeding, and modern cattle feed) and output supply (milk yield, milk income, and straw output). As predicted by Boserup's theory, the use of modern input and output supply initially increases with increasing population pressure but declines again when population densities pass a critical threshold (800 persons/km2), supporting Malthus’ hypothesis. The estimation results also revealed that both milk and straw supply responded positively to prices. Free grazing and stall feeding are found to be complementary activities. Likewise, crop farm income and off‐farm job have a nonlinear relation with population pressure, implying that both initially increase and then decrease with rising population pressure.

Political Descent: Malthus, Mutualism, and the Politics of Evolution in Victorian England by Piers J. Hale

Political Descent: Malthus, Mutualism, and the Politics of Evolution in Victorian England, by Piers J. Hale. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2014. 465 pp. $45.00 US (cloth). Piers Hale has written an engrossing and well-argued work on the complex milieu of Charles Darwin's early evolutionary theory and its subsequent interpreters. In so doing, he places the current disputes on evolutionary theory, particularly those between proponents of individual versus group selection, into a proper social, historical, and intellectual context. The assumptions regarding the social relations of competition and cooperation were no less obvious in Darwin's day than in our own. Political Descent argues that Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and especially Darwin himself, were well aware of the political, moral, and social implications of evolutionary theory. Likewise, the assumptions grounding our present debates can be seen in these distant debates if we take Hale's invitation to suspend our usual disdainful sense that the arguments have progressed since then, or that it was ever simply an argument between Darwinists and anti-Darwinists. Hale begins with a discussion of Malthus and the politics of evolutionary theory before and after Darwin focused on the role of competition and cooperation in human evolution. The question of whether natural selection can account for the existence of altruism and social cohesion produced two ideological formations: one that embraced the social stasis invoked by Malthus, and the other a radical, progressive, anti-Malthusian politics that originates in Lamarck and Darwin's own Lamarckism. The opposition is between those who would interpret Darwin through the lens of Malthus and those who would have Darwin without Malthus. Hales shifts the figure of Darwin from its usual role as the organizing centre of attention to show Darwin in dialogue with Malthus, Herbert Spencer, and Alfred Russel Wallace. Hale describes how Darwin's rejection of Lamarck--and with it the radical politics often attached to the theory of acquired characteristics--facilitated the acceptance of On the Origin of Species (London, 1859) by placing it within the mainstream of Whig politics. However, this invited Malthusian interpretations of natural selection that Darwin flatly rejected. Darwin insisted that his use of Malthus was always metaphorical. Darwin's use of Malthus certainly influenced the reception of the Origin of Species, but Darwin's Origin reinterprets Malthus theory in support of an ever-changing nature. This, Hale shows, contributed to the diverse politics and social theories that continue to spring from Darwin's engagement with the species question. Hale provides a nice account of Wallace's often overlooked address to London's Anthropological Society that attempted to reconcile its avowed polygenism with the monogenism espoused in Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley's Ethnological Society. Despite Darwin's enthusiasm for Wallace's paper, he held firmly to his views on the centrality of natural and sexual selection in human evolution while embracing the portion of Wallace's paper that showed the importance of social relations in the development of moral sentiment and altruism in humans. …

Глобальный демографический кризис с позиций теории Т. Мальтуса и неомальтузианцев

Глобальный демографический кризис с позиций теории Т. Мальтуса и неомальтузианцев

Does high population growth help or hurt economic development? Cases of China and Pakistan

In this paper a comparative analysis of China and Pakistan is conducted to see the relationship between large and growing populations and their effects on their economic development. We explore the popular Malthusian theory as well as the pro-natalists theory of Simon, in an effort to conclude whether these countries will fall into scenarios explained by them. We conclude that in China's case, large population proved beneficial to its economic development, once certain policies were correctly implemented to get the labour market working more efficiently. Pakistan, on the other hand did not adopt favourable policies to manage and educate the growing population, and therefore showed a different result. These policies, must then be explored, which are Gerald Scully's mechanisms for economic development, in order to properly account for other reasons. We conclude that it is mandatory for a country to correctly manage the increase in population. This paper is divided into four sections: Section 1 is an introductory section, it explains the population explosion, Section 2 discusses the traditional population theories of Malthus and Simon. Section 3 explains Gastill-Scully mechanisms for economic growth and applies them to the Chinese and Pakistani cases. Section 4 makes the summary and concludes our arguments.

Malthus’s theory on population as a basis for criticism of the interventionist state

Going by ideological debates concerning (un)justifiable state intervention, protection of individual liberty, and the question of state's role, this article analyses Malthus's theory on population. It states a thesis that theory on population leads Malthus toward the idea of a minimal state and represents a basis for criticism of an interventionist state and its paternalistic role. The article consists of an introduction, four sections and a conclusion. The introduction cites goals of the work and gives basic notes on Malthus's theory on population and its socio-historical context. Special consideration is paid on reasons that lead to desertion of his ideas with a special focus on changes within liberal ideology, that lead to dissociation from classical liberalism and a merging of liberalism with socialism. The first part examines basic principles of Malthus's theory on population - primarily the idea that the population multiply faster than the food supply, and that population, when unchecked, increases in geometrical ratio, while subsistence increases only in arithmetical ratio. Afterwards, this Malthus's idea is linked to the status of the poor, and is concluded that the state intervention is useless, being that the troubles this part of the population faces are a consequence of their own actions. Therefore, the role of the state should not be care for the poor. In the second part positive and preventive checks to population are examined. Preventive checks are further analyzed because Malthus gives them more importance. The third, central part, is dedicated to Malthus's criticism of the Poor Laws and, within it, his opposition to the state's intervention is further analyzed. According to Malthus, laws that are passed in order to improve the status of the poor have an opposite effect. Even though their aim is to decrease poverty, they increase it. Their tendency is to lead to an increase in population, without the simultaneous increase in food resources that are needed to satisfy the needs of that number of people. The poor, when given an increase in wages, tend to marry more and form families with a larger number of children that they can't support themselves. In that way, they become more dependent on the state, and this leads to an increase in poverty. The fourth part analyzes the misgivings of Malthus's theory, especially its negligence of technological advancement. And it is because of this omission that Malthus couldn't come to a different theory concerning population growth, rather than the one that he had formed. Finally, after all the important elements of Malthus's theory on population are analyzed, the importance of his thought and a theory of minimal state are examined. Stated and defended is the stance that the theory of minimal state is not value-neutral, and that the only minimal state that can exist is a liberal minimal state, and therefore Thomas Robert Malthus belongs to that tradition within the liberal thought.

Darwin’s Theory is the Mixture of Malthus’s Theory and Lyell’s Theory and Darwin Use Wrong Lamarck’s Theory as Well as Believe as a Mechanism of Evolution

Darwin’s theory of natural selection is a mixture of Lyell’s theory and Malthus’s theory and Darwin used wrong Lamarck’s theory, theme of sociologist Herbert Spencer ‘survival of the fittest’ plus believes as the mechanism of evolution. Evidences are provided form his paper 1858, ‘Origin of Species’ and ‘Descent of Man’ his autobiography and different text books. Diverse literatures showed that Lyell declared in ‘Principle of Geology’ that the earth was evolved from the simple to the modern stage by slow and gradual (he utilized gradual 170 times) process by natural forces during millions of years. Darwin applied this view to natural selection. But he used ‘living organisms’ in lieu of the ‘earth surface’ and confirmed that all the living organisms evolved by slow and gradual process from a few previous simple organisms over millions of years. Furthermore, Darwin used Lyell’s name and his idea gradual 27 times in ‘Origin of Species’ and 9 times in ‘Descent of Man’. Malthus argued in ‘Principle of population’ geometrical increasing of human population and confirmed that as many more individuals are born can possibly survive. So, there is often struggle for existence and competition is compulsory. Darwin adopted this idea in his theory of natural selection but he used ‘all living organisms’ instead of ‘Human’. Additionally, Darwin applied Malthus thought geometrical increase 11 times, struggle 84 times, existence 69 and competition 44 times in ‘Origin of Species’. Thus, Darwin synthesized natural selection by the mixture of Malthus theory and Lyell’s theory in 1889. Moreover, he applied wrong Lamarck’s theory disuse 41 places in ‘Origin of Species’ and 15 places in ‘Descent of Man’. He acknowledged that principles of natural selection is shadowed of forth principles of Lamarck and the problem of human evolution can never be solved by science. Man is considered with other some ancient, lower, and extinct form, Lamarck long ago came to this conclusion. Six classical World renowned persons (Darwin, Wallace, Malthus, Lyell, Lamarck and Spencer) direct related to development of ‘natural selection’ (Origin Species and Descent of Man) but four persons are academically nonscientist (Darwin, Malthus, Lyell and Spencer) even two main persons are academically clergyman man (Darwin and Malthus). Even, Darwin applied unscientific idea ‘I believe’ and similar theme 372 times in ‘Origin of Species’ and 264 times in ‘Descent of Man’. However, believe is not science as believe in God is not science.

Beyond the principle of population: Malthus's Essay

After an introductory section, this article reviews reasons and arguments establishing the invalidity of Malthus's construct of a ‘principle of population’. Section 3 propounds that Malthus's theory is located beyond the principle of population, with the oscillation figure as its centre. Section 4 takes note of the trajectory which the Essay describes between natural and moral science, assesses inequality and growth as the two focal points of Malthus's theory and eventually observes Malthus looking forward to a state beyond the dictates of growth.

La risorsa alimentare globale e la capacità della scienza di superare i limiti attuali: Malthus ha ancora torto?

More than two centuries ago, T.R. Malthus postulated the human reproductive capacity being higher than the earth’s feeding capacity. As last decades’ population growth proved Malthus theory wrong, experts agree that this can be attributed to the application of technology in agriculture, leading to a significant enhancement of unit yields (first green revolution). However, heavy social and environmental costs were paid to reach such stunning achievements; moreover, they have seemingly gained a steady level, owing to increasing pressure of several limiting factors (e.g., soils, water, and nutrients availability; global change, etc.). Malthus prediction is therefore still relevant when trying to match population growth and food availability: the time seems ripe to launch a second green revolution, focused on lowimpact, easily accessible technologies.

Les crises démographiques en France à la fin du XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle : un essai de mesure

J.P. Chevet. The demographic crises in France at the End of the XVIIe century and during the XVIIIe century : an attempt of measurement. This papers offers a more convenient method for detecting the demographic crises than those in use till now. Founded on the ARIMA model, it gibes an estimation of the amplitude of the deviation due to the crises, these crises being understood as external shocks. An application from French demographic series of the 1670-1789 period illustrates the method and helps to tackle the questions related to the various interpretations of Malthus's theory. The matter of the post-crisis recovery is dealt with, and its effects on the variations of the age of the first marriage.

Political Economy of Demographic Change

Undertakes a critical study of population theory and demographic change in the history of economic thought and then presents an alternative theory of social change within which demographic change can be taken up. This latter kind of theoretical construct is shown to be an endogenous theory of population change and demographic transition wherein policy variables are taken up as ethical parameters endogenously affecting social issues and interactive decisions. Examples here are shown to be fertility decisions of families, migration policies and others. On the contrary, shows that in the history of economic thought it has been an exogenous approach towards explaining optimal population (Malthus theory), dynamic version (Canan) or a policy‐exogenous but fertility‐endogenous theory of household preferences to children as consumer or capital good that has been presented by the neoclassical and classical schools. A brief critique of Marxist view on population change is also covered. In conclusion, tries to establish the logical validity of an endogenous theory of population and points to its empirical possibility.

Malthus's Theory of Wages and Growth

Many writers have produced models of economic growth based on the theories of Classical Economists, but reformulated with the aid of the modern techniques of economic analysis. These writers have mostly concentrated on Ricardo's theory, and many mathematical models of the Ricardian system are now available. However, in more recent times, Malthus's theory of growth has also been the object of this kind of analytical approach.' The present article suggests a new formulation of Malthus's system, based on some features of his work which have not been taken in full consideration until now. We have incorporated these elements in a model which seeks to capture his essential and, in our opinion, most original contributions to the theory of economic growth. This article is divided in two parts. The first part is devoted to a restatement of Malthus's argument concerning the influence of effective demand on the growth of the economy. The second part of the article then develops a model of long-term growth which combines Malthus's views on effective demand and diminishing returns with his principle of population. One of the most interesting aspects of this model is its explanation of unemployment as a permanent phenomenon and not merely a transitory phase. The writings of Malthus are sometimes obscure and difficult to interpret. However, this does not excuse the cavalier way in which his work is treated and some of its most fundamental features are ignored, such as, for example, his theory of value and real wage determination. The present article seeks to redress the balance by analysing in some detail Malthus's ideas on value and real wages; it also explores his ideas on growth and unemployment. For lack of space, we cannot deal with other aspects of his thought which also deserve attention (such as, for instance, his views on the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, or on the role of fixed capital). However, this is not a serious problem for the issues covered in the present article are of central importance and can be considered in isolation from the rest of his ideas. To analyse the views of Malthus, we make use of a simple mathematical model and what follows is, in our opinion, a fairly accurate formalisation of these views. Moreover, quite apart from its merits as a formalisation of what Malthus himself believed, the model is interesting in its own right.

Malthus Past and Present

This document contained 9 summary reports and 20 of the 164 papers which were presented at the 1980 International Conference on Historical Demography. The purpose of the conference was to reexamine the ideas of Malthus to identify misinterpretations of his theories to trace the origin of his ideas and the historical context in which he formulated his theories and to evaluate their applicability in the past and in the present. The conference made clear that Malthus was neither an antinatalist nor an enemy of the poor and that neo-Malthusianism bares little resemblence to the theories of Malthus. Parts I and II contain 9 papers which discuss Malthus demographic economic and social theories and the social economic political and intellectual context in which he developed these theories. 1 of these papers discussed Malthus as a demographer. Malthus was in general a poor forecaster of population dynamics; however he did predict differential fertility and the demographic transition. Furthermore he recognized many of the dilemmas which confront demographers today. Another paper discussed Malthus ideas abut mortality. Malthus maintained that the rate of mortality was constant. 1 author analyzed the local parrish records which were available to Malthus to determine if the data contained in those records supported Malthus population principle. The data did not support Malthus theories. Another author used modern statistical methods to analyze the conditions which existed in England during Malthus lifetime to determine if Malthus assumptions were valid at the time he formulated them. Some of the assumptions were valid and others were not. Part III contained 5 articles which discussed Malthus theories and religion. The degree to which his theories were accepted and in accord with Catholic Protestant and Judaic teachings was examined. Part IV entitled Malthusianism contained 4 articles which discussed: 1) the impact of Malthus theories on British thought and on the birth control movement 2) the relevancy of Malthus theories today 3) the rationale underlying Malthus population principle and 4) Malthus theories of underdevelopment. Part V contained 7 papers which dealt with the differences and similarities between Malthus theories and socialism. Part VI contained 4 papers which discussed: 1) Malthus ideas about population equilibrium 2) self-regulating mechanisms in African herbivorous population 3) self-regulating mechanisms in the red grouse population and 4) the relationship between food supply and human fertility.

A proportionate understanding

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was brought up in the ideology of progress, but made a complete break with progressive thought with his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), in which he argued that it is useless, even dangerous, to provide relief for the poor, as this encourages them to reproduce. The success of this work provoked a heated discussion, obliging Malthus to expand and elucidate his ideas on population. This resulted in a second Essay (1803), markedly different from the first. This work established Malthus's lasting reputation; he was appointed to a chair in political economy – the first of its kind in Europe – and elected a member of the Royal Society. In 1820, he published another major work: Principles of Political Economy. Malthus's theory soon became known on the continent, particularly in France and Germany, but not without misconceptions or misinterpretations. Most of his opponents have only taken up a caricatural model according to which population always increases in a geometrical progression, while the means of subsistence only increase in an arithmetical progression. In fact, Malthus referred only to tendencies: demographic growth is always checked, be it preventively or positively. In the first Essay, these checks were identified as misery (in the wider sense) and vice; in the second Essay, Malthus introduced the notion of moral restraint (meaning late marriage). All this was embedded in Malthus's moral and theological reflection on progress and Providence; but the Principle of Population also implied pessimistic views on poverty and state assistance, meaning that Malthus's reputation – among socialists and progressivists at least – was permanently tarnished. This perception was quite unjustified, since Malthus was a liberal member of the Whig Party and in favor of reform. Malthus's intellectual legacy was extremely varied. On the economic level, the theory of effective demand, which he introduced in the Principles, was a lasting success; on the political level, the very term ‘Malthusian’ was coined as early as 1822 by Francis Place, who proposed a much easier and more effective method of checking population growth than moral restraint: the limitation of births within marriage. It is in this form, representing a complete break with Malthus’ theory, that neo-Malthusianism became established in the nineteenth century, gaining wide acceptance after the Second World War, even at the United Nations.

Malthus and the Intellectuals

If we adopt the cynical definition of a classic, a work that everyone cites and no one reads, then An Essay on the Principle of Population must be designated a superclassic-written by a man whose name has entered all the Western languages but whose central ideas are often misunderstood even by professional demographers. Part of the difficulty lies in the confusions and half-contradictions that Malthus introduced as he developed his ideas over his lifetime. But the main basis of misunderstanding, now no less than a century and a half ago, is that there is hardly a cherished ideology, left or right, traditional or modernist, that is not brought into question by the principle of population. Reactions of contemporaries set the stage for later false views. Not all the commentary on Malthus's theory was negative, of course, but even some of the positive reaction to it helped reinforce misconceptions about it. Clergymen were divided: some denounced the principle of population as blasphemous, and those who approved of it incorporated Malthus into their number, so that later generations remember him not as a professor, which he was for the whole of his mature life, but as the Reverend T. R. Malthus. David Ricardo, who perhaps more than any

On non‐verbatim learning: III. The outcome space of some basic concepts in economics

Abstract.— The subjective meaning of some basic concepts in economics was studied in an experimental context. The set of subjective meanings or levels of outcome constitutes the outcome space of a certain concept. Consecutive levels of outcome corresponding to basic concepts of economics such as the production possibility frontier, the law of diminishing returns and the Malthus theory of population were shown to be ordered with respect to complexity (number of simultaneous dimensions of variation) involved.

An historical sketch of the American population control movement.

This paper critically examines the fundamental premises and historical background of the American population control movement and shows how the theories of Thomas Malthus became interwoven with those of the eugenics movement during the first four decades of this century. After World War II, the concern of eugenicists with “race betterment” and with halting multiplication of the “unfit” was replaced by claims that the world was gravely menaced by a “population explosion.” This thematic shift was consistent with the economic and political aims of American financiers and industrialists after 1945, and many of them, as indicated in this paper, became leading figures of the Population Establishment. The author has proceeded with the belief that a rationally planned economy based upon collective ownership of wealth by the working class can furnish goods and services in abundance, while eradicating unemployment, starvation, and oppression. An end to economic exploitation would greatly expand health care facilities and educational opportunities, and demographic problems could be studied and solved within the context of constructing a society that served, rather than pillaged, its members. Today, the goal of intelligent planning of births, at both the family level and the collective level, is blocked by the continuing existence of capitalism. For that reason, exposition of scientific alternatives to present-day world population control plans is preceded by the urgent task of analyzing the complex interplay between those plans and the present system of exploitation and oppression. In her conclusion, the author briefly reappraises the theories of Malthus, which have consistently shaped the decisions made by the Population Establishment. Like Malthus' assertions at the dawn of the industrial era, contemporary neo-Malthusian pronouncements ultimately rest upon assumptions that economic and social irrationalities are invincible and eternal. As the author indicates, neither capitalist society nor plans of action that seek to prolong its existence can offer solutions for today's pressing problems of famine and impoverishment.