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Early literacy achievements, population density and the transition to modern growth

Author

Listed:
  • Economics department, UCL, Louvain,David de la Croix, CORE
  • Raouf Boucekkine

    (Economics Université catholique de Louvain)

  • David de la Croix

    (Economics Université catholique de Louvain)

  • Dominique Peeters

    (CORE and the department of Geography, UCL, Louvain)

Abstract

The transition from economic stagnation to sustained growth is often modelled thanks to "population-induced" productivity improvements, which are assumed rather than derived from primary assumptions. In this paper, the effect of population on productivity is derived from optimal behavior. Both the number and location schools are chosen optimally by municipalities. Individuals determine their education investment depending on the distance to the nearest school, and also on technical progress and longevity. In this setting, higher population density enables the set-up costs of additional schools to be covered, opening the possibility to reach higher education levels. Using counterfactual experiments, we find that one third of the rise in literacy can be directly attributed to the population density effect, while one sixth is linked to higher longevity and one half to technical progress. Moreover, the effect of population density in the model is consistent with available evidence for England

Suggested Citation

  • Economics department, UCL, Louvain,David de la Croix, CORE & Raouf Boucekkine & David de la Croix & Dominique Peeters, 2006. "Early literacy achievements, population density and the transition to modern growth," Computing in Economics and Finance 2006 205, Society for Computational Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sce:scecfa:205
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    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

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