This book addresses nine relevant questions: Will population growth reduce the growth rate of per capita income because it reduces the per capita availability of exhaustible resources? How about for renewable resources? Will population growth aggravate degradation of the natural environment? Does more rapid growth reduce worker output and consumption? Do rapid growth and greater density lead to productivity gains through scale economies and thereby raise per capita income? Will rapid population growth reduce per capita levels of education and health? Will it increase inequality of income distribution? Is it an important source of labor problems and city population absorption? And, finally, do the economic effects of population growth justify government programs to reduce fertility that go beyond the provision of family planning services?

Table of Contents

• Front Matter
• Introduction
• 1 Will slower population growth increase the growth rate of per capita income through increasing per capita availability of exhaustible resources?
• 2 Will slower population growth increase the growth rate of per capita income through increasing per capita availability of renewable resources?
• 3 Will slower population growth alleviate pollution and the degradaton of the natural environment?
• 4 Will slower population growth lead to more capital per worker, thereby increasing per worker output and consumption?
• 5 Do lower population densities lead to lower per capita incomes via a reduced stimulus to technological innovation and reduced exploitation economies of scale in production and infrastructure?
• 6 Will slower population growth increase per capita levels of schooling and health?
• 7 Will slower population growth decrease the degree of inequality in the distribution of income?
• 8 Will slower population growth facilitate the absorption of workers into the modern economic sector and alleviate problems of urban growth?
• 9 Can a couple's fertility behavior impose costs on society at large?
• Conclusion
• References
• Index