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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics pp 1–12Cite as

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Economic Demography

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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.

Keywords

  • Adult equivalency
  • Ageing
  • Agricultural growth and population change
  • Capital accumulation
  • Convergence
  • Demographic drag
  • Demographic gift
  • Demographic transition
  • Diffusion of technology
  • Diminishing returns
  • Dismal science
  • Economic demography
  • Economic development
  • Economic growth
  • Education
  • Endogenous growth
  • Fertility
  • Free rider problem
  • Human capital
  • Innovation
  • Kuznets, S.
  • Labour productivity
  • Learning-by-doing
  • Life expectancy
  • Life-cycle modelling
  • Malthus., T. R.
  • Mortality
  • Population density
  • Population growth
  • Population size
  • Renewable resources
  • Research and development
  • Rule of law
  • Saving
  • Simon, J. L.
  • Subsistence
  • Technical change

JEL Classifications

  • J10

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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  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5

    Allen C. Kelley & Robert M. Schmidt

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  1. Allen C. Kelley
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  2. Robert M. Schmidt
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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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