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- Title
THE POPULATION OBSTACLE TO ECONOMIC BETTERMENT.
- Authors
Spengler, Joseph J.
- Abstract
The article focuses on the problem due to population in economic betterment. The ratio of a nation's labor force to its population tends to be most favorable when this population has become stationary under Western mortality conditions. This ratio is conditioned by the age composition of the population and its state of health. Output per worker is highly correlated with the amount of productive assets in use per worker. The consumption of raw materials is highly correlated with national income, population growth eventually tends to make necessary recourse to natural resources which, because they are inferior or less accessible, cost more to exploit. Population growth is accompanied, within limits, by economies of organization which operate to increase output per worker. An increase in numbers makes for an increase in output per capita. The population of a country may be said to be of optimum size when, given the cost of supporting the economically unproductive part of the population. Population growth is retarding capital formation, accelerating the rate of depletion of the world's limited store of nonreplaceable resources, augmenting the rise of costs in increasing cost of industries and decelerating the rate of increase of per capita income.
- Subjects
POPULATION &; economics; CONSUMPTION (Economics); ECONOMIC development; LABOR supply; RAW materials; NATIONAL income; PER capita
- Publication
American Economic Review, 1951, Vol 41, Issue 2, p343
- ISSN
0002-8282
- Publication type
Article