Rapid Population Growth

Citation: National Research, Council (1971) Rapid Population Growth.
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Rapid Population Growth
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

1. Globally slower population growth may delay the time at which a particular stage of depletion of an exhaustible resource is reached. 2. Slower population growth is likely to lead to a reduced rate of degradation of renewable common-property resources such as air, water, and species of plants and animals. 3. Lower fertility is likely to raise average per child levels of household expenditure on health and education. 4. Unless a fertility decline is concentrated among high-income families, it is likely to lead to a reduction in income disparities among social classes. 5. With slower population growth, cities grow more slowly, both in the short and long run reducing the demand for urban infrastructural investments while eventually reducing the revenue base that supports such investments. 6. Many negative effects of population growth can be ameliorated if institutional adjustment mechanisms are in place, such as property rights in land and properly functioning markets for labor, capital, and goods. Population growth can, and often does, trigger market reactions. The market-induced adjustments to higher growth do not appear to be large enough to offset the negative effects on per capita income of higher ratios of labor to other factors of production. NRC concludes that slower population growth would be beneficial to economic development for most developing countries.