CHAPTER 6: POPULATION GROWTH

AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND
CONTROVERSIES
PREPARED BY: GROUP 5
CAUSE OF POPULATION GROWTH AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• High birth rates and lower death rates

 The Causes of High Fertility in Developing
Countries:The Malthusian and Household Models
• High birth rates/High fertility

Malthusian population trap

-The threshold population level anticipated by Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) at which
population increase was bound to stop because life sustaining resources, which increase at
an arithmetic rate, would be insufficient to support human population, which increases at a
geometric rate.
Household theory of fertility
-The theory that family formation has costs and benefits that determine the size of families
formed.

 H
Malthusian Theory

Malthusian Theory of Results in imbalance between

Population
population and food supply

Populati on increases in Food supply increases in

geometrical progression arithmetical progression
(1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,in 200
in 200 years) years)

How to correct the imbalance?

Positive or natural checks-

Preventi ve: late marriages,
Famines, epidemics, wars
chastity, moral restraint
etc.
The Causes of High Fertility in Developing
Countries:The Malthusian and Household
Models
Demand for Children Equation

Cd = f(Y, Pc, Px, tx), x = 1, . . . , n

The Causes of High Fertility in Developing
Countries:The Malthusian and Household
Models
 Microeconomic Theory of Fertility: Some
Implications
• It follows logically that fertility lower where there is:
• More female nonagricultural employment, and at higher wages
• Raised women’s education, role, and status
• Expanded schooling opportunities, with lowered real costs for children
• Increases in family income levels
• Reduction in infant mortality, better health care
• Development of old-age and social security plans
The Consequences of High Fertility
1. Underdevelopment
2. World Resource Depletion and Environmental
Destruction
3. Population Distribution
4. Subordination of Women
 The Consequences of High Fertility
1. Underdevelopment

• If correct strategies are pursued and lead to higher levels of living, greater self-
esteem, and expanded freedom, population will take care of itself.

• As long as people in developing countries remain impoverished, uneducated,

and healthy and the social safety net remains weak, the large family will
constitute the only real source of social securitry.
 The Consequences of High Fertility
2. World Resource Depletion and Environmental Destruction

• Population can only be an economic problem in relation to the availability and

utilization of scarce natural and material resources.

• The fact is that developed countries, with less than one-quarter of the worlds
population, consume almost 80% of the world’s resources.
 The Consequences of High Fertility
3. Population Distribution

• Many regions of the world and many regions within countries are viewed
underpopulated in terms of available or potential resources while others simply
have too many people concentrated in too small an area.

• Governments should therefore strive not to moderate the rate of population

growth but rather to bring about a more natural spatial distribution of the
population in terms of available land and other productive resources.
 The Consequences of High Fertility
4. Subordination of Women

• women often bear the disproportionate burdens of poverty, poor education, and
limited social mobility

• If women’s health, education, and economic well-being are improved along with
their role and status in both the family and the community, this empowerment of
women will inevitably lead to smaller families and lower population growth.
 Seven Negative Consequences of Population
Growth
1. Economic Growth
2. Poverty and Inequality
3. Education
4. Health
5. Food
6. Environment
7. International Migration
 The three propositions constitute the essential
components of this intermediate or consensus opinion.

1. Population growth is not the primary cause of low levels of living,

extreme inequalities, or the limited freedom of choice that characterize
much of the developing world. The fundamental causes of these
problems must be sought, rather, in the plight of poor families,
especially women, and the failure of other aspects of domestic and
international development policy.
 The three propositions constitute the essential
components of this intermediate or consensus opinion.

2. The problem of population is not simply one of numbers but involves

the quality of life and material well-being. Thus developing country
population size must be viewed in conjunction with developed-country
affluence in relation to the quantity, distribution, and utilization of world
resources, not just in relation to developing countries’ indigenous
resources.
 The three propositions constitute the essential
components of this intermediate or consensus opinion.

3. Rapid population growth does serve to intensify problems of

underdevelopment and make prospects for development that much more
remote. As noted, the momentum of growth means that, barring
catastrophe, the population of developing countries will increase
dramatically over the coming decades, no matter what fertility control
measures are adopted now. It follows that high population growth rates,
though not the principal cause of underdevelopment, are nevertheless
important contributing factors in specific countries and regions of the
world.
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