Abstract
Economic demography is an area of study that examines the determinants and consequences of demographic change, including fertility, mortality, marriage, divorce, location (urbanisation, migration, density), age, gender, ethnicity, population size and population growth. This article reviews and critically evaluates important macroeconomic dimensions of the ‘population debates’ between the ‘optimists’ and the ‘pessimists’ since 1950. It concludes with an examination of demography in the popular ‘convergence’ growth models of the 1990s.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume
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Kelley, A.C., Schmidt, R.M. (2008). Economic Demography. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2253-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2253-1
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