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Population and Resources: An Exploration of Reproductive and Environmental Externalities

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  • Partha Dasgupta

Abstract

This article identifies four types of social externalities associated with fertility behavior. Three are shown to be pronatalist in their effects. These three are exemplified by the way theories of economic growth treat fertility and natural resources, the way population growth and economic stress in poor countries are seen by environmental and resource economists, and the way development economists accommodate environmental stress in their analysis of poverty. It is shown that the fourth type of externality, in which children are regarded as an end in themselves, can even provide an invidious link between fertility decisions and the use of the local natural‐resource base among poor rural households in poor countries. The fourth type is used to develop a theory of fertility transitions in the contemporary world; the theory views such transitions as disequilibrium phenomena.

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  • Partha Dasgupta, 2000. "Population and Resources: An Exploration of Reproductive and Environmental Externalities," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 26(4), pages 643-689, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:26:y:2000:i:4:p:643-689
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2000.00643.x
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    Cited by:

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    5. Tsangyao Chang & Hsiao-Ping Chu & Frederick W. Deale & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2017. "The relationship between population growth and standard-of-living growth over 1870–2013: evidence from a bootstrapped panel Granger causality test," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 44(1), pages 175-201, February.
    6. Iyer, Sriya & Velu, Chander, 2006. "Real options and demographic decisions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 39-58, June.
    7. Sayef Bakari & Mohamed Mabrouki & Abdelhafidh Othmani, 2018. "The Six Linkages Between Foreign Direct Investment, Domestic Investment, Exports, Imports, Labor Force And Economic Growth: New Empirical And Policy Analysis From Nigeria," Journal of Smart Economic Growth, , vol. 3(1), pages 25-43, Juin.
    8. Iyer, S. & Weeks, M., 2009. "Social Interactions, Ethnicity and Fertility in Kenya," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0903, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Javier A. Birchenall, 2016. "Population and development redux," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 627-656, April.
    10. Dionysia Lambiri & Bianca Biagi & Vicente Royuela, 2007. "Quality of Life in the Economic and Urban Economic Literature," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 1-25, October.
    11. Frank Joest & Martin Quaas & Johannes Schiller, 2006. "Environmental problems and economic development in an endogenous fertility model," Working Papers 0428, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2006.
    12. Shi, Anqing, 2003. "The impact of population pressure on global carbon dioxide emissions, 1975-1996: evidence from pooled cross-country data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 29-42, February.
    13. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-477 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Kirui, Oliver K. & Mirzabaev, Alisher, 2016. "Cost of land degradation and improvement in Eastern Africa," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 249321, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    15. Patra, Nilanjan, 2008. "State-wise pattern of gender bias in child health in India," MPRA Paper 21435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Jaeger, William K. & Kolpin, Van & Siegel, Ryan, 2023. "The environmental Kuznets curve reconsidered," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Oliviero Carboni & Paolo Russu, 2015. "Assessing Regional Wellbeing in Italy: An Application of Malmquist–DEA and Self-organizing Map Neural Clustering," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 677-700, July.
    18. Guillermo Cruces & Andres Ham & Martin Tetaz, 2008. "Quality of Life in Buenos Aires Neighborhoods: Hedonic Price Regressions and the Life Satisfaction Approach," Research Department Publications 3260, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    19. Kirui, Oliver K., 2016. "Impact of land degradation on household poverty: evidence from a panel data simultaneous equation model," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246396, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    20. Casari, Marco & Lisciandra, Maurizio & Tagliapietra, Claudio, 2019. "Property Rights, Marriage, and Fertility in the Italian Alps, 1790–1820," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 72-92.
    21. Tsangyao Chang & Hsiao-Ping Chu & Frederick W. Deale & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2014. "The Relationship between Population Growth and Economic Growth Over 1870-2013: Evidence from a Bootstrapped Panel-Granger Causality Test," Working Papers 201431, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    22. Bhattacharya, Haimanti & Innes, Robert, 2005. "Bi-Directional Links Between Population Growth and the Environment: Evidence From India," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19404, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

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