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Population and Economic Growth Under Different Growth Engines

Author

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  • Bucci Alberto

    (University of Milan, Milano, Italy)

  • Raurich Xavier

    (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

Using a growth model with physical capital accumulation, human capital investment and horizontal R&D activity, this paper proposes an alternative channel through which an increase in the population growth rate may yield a non-uniform (i.e., a positive, negative, or neutral) impact on the long-run growth rate of per-capita GDP, as available empirical evidence seems mostly to suggest. The proposed mechanism relies on the nature of the process of economic growth (whether it is fully or semi-endogenous), and the peculiar engine(s) driving economic growth (human capital investment, R&D activity, or both). The model also explains why in the long term the association between population growth and productivity growth may ultimately be negative when R&D is an engine of economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Bucci Alberto & Raurich Xavier, 2017. "Population and Economic Growth Under Different Growth Engines," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 182-211, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:18:y:2017:i:2:p:182-211
    DOI: 10.1111/geer.12092
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    2. Ziesemer, Thomas, 2019. "Can we have growth when population is stagnant? Testing linear growth rate formulas and their cross-unit cointegration of non-scale endogenous growth models," MERIT Working Papers 2019-021, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    3. Gilad Sorek & Bharat Diwakar, 2017. "Weak Scale Effects in Overlapping Generations Economy," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 962-969.
    4. Boikos, Spyridon & Bucci, Alberto & Stengos, Thanasis, 2022. "Leisure and innovation in horizontal R&D-based growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Thomas H.W. Ziesemer, 2020. "Can we have growth when population is stagnant? Testing linear growth rate formulas of non-scale endogenous growth models," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(13), pages 1502-1516, March.
    6. Thomas I. Renström & Luca Spataro, 2021. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous growth model with variable population and public expenditure," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 639-659, August.
    7. Bosede Ngozi Adeleye & Ismail Bengana & Abdelaziz Boukhelkhal & Mohammad Musa Shafiq & Hauwah K. K. Abdulkareem, 2022. "Does Human Capital Tilt the Population-Economic Growth Dynamics? Evidence from Middle East and North African Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 863-883, July.
    8. Ziesemer, Thomas, 2017. "Testing linear growth rate formulas of non-scale endogenous growth models," MERIT Working Papers 2017-036, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Alberto Bucci & Klaus Prettner, 2020. "Endogenous education and the reversal in the relationship between fertility and economic growth," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 1025-1068, July.

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