Relationship between Population and Economic Growth
Relationship between Population and Economic Growth According To Malthusian Growth Model
According to Lanz, Dietz & Swanson (2017), the Malthusian Growth Model is founded on two main assumptions, namely the level of population development plus returns to labor. Populace growth rate means that the subsistence is over the minimum standard. According to the model, the population rate increases quicker than food production. In other words, the population grows at a regular price if it is stopped by a potent check beside the production of food increases only in a mathematical proportion. Malthusian Growth Model shows that each head food inclines to rise with an increase in population, and this explains the rules of decreasing returns toward labor. Chatterjee & Vogl (2018) argue that the model also emphasizes on development that is a short term rather than long-term development. Short term development maximizes the conservation of scarce human and natural resources compared to long-term development. Therefore the Malthusian Growth Model looks at the importance of focusing our attention on the check processed of capital in various developing nations. This paper tries to analyze the association amid Population and Economic Growth in developing according to the Malthusian Growth Model
Population Growths versus Economic Development
The association amid population and economic development in developing countries is of great concern in the contemporary past. Population growth suppresses the living standards whereby rapid population growth can reduce per headland, and this exerts a lot of pressure on the fixed amount of land (Karim & Amin, 2018). This relationship is considered a delicate and immeasurably complex one. Thus raising Malthusian fears of despoliation of the planet via demands that are excessive on the available limited natural resources like clean air and drinking water (Dutta et al., 2018). When pressure mounts on these resources, they become polluted and depleted. For instance, when pressure is put on the available land space, the soil is depleted of its fertility, and this results in reduced crop yields. The figure below shows the relationship between population growths in various developing nations and per capita GDP (Kabir & Chowdhury, 2018).
Figure 1 Population growth rates and GDP per capita growth rates (1960-2017). Source: World Bank Data Bank
The above diagram illustrates an unpretentious cross-sectional association between economic growths besides population growth. It shows a negative association among population growth besides economic development on unindustrialized nations when it is considered on a long term basis between 1960 and 2017. Jeníček (2016) argues that in the recent past, developing countries have been in the forefront in taking preventive measures using the community-based approach by recruiting village women to help in training the public on simple medicine and family planning consisting of a variety of birth control methods. Madsen, Robertson & Ye (2019) argue that educated women are also empowered; thus, they have opportunities to work away from home, hence leading to a reduction in the fertility rate. The Malthusian Growth Model describes this phenomenon using the function
y = -1.965x + 6.3483 R² = 0.11824
The function above states that the economic growth in terms of GDP between 1960 and 2017 was at 0.11724 %. This means that developing countries through public education on the importance of controlling their population growth, which is seen to drop by half, and a country whose total population is low find it easier to feed and educate the population (Szabo, Padmadas & Falkingham, 2018). Such a population is also healthier compared that a high population that scrambles for the available scarce resources (Castells-Quintana, 2017).
Figure 2: Malthusian Growth Model
According to the Malthusian Growth Model, populations increase with an increase in incomes because higher incomes tend to stimulate earlier marriages, thus high birth rates (Zhang, 2018). Higher incomes also reduce mortality rates due to malnutrition, among other factors (Johnson & Koyama, 2017). However, higher populations also suppress incomes per capita by diminishing marginal productivity. The agricultural land gets exhausted due to pressure on it and consequent pollution. The vibrant association amid population and economic development remains the core function of the Malthusian Growth Model on population plus revenue purpose. This implies a static population now the long-run stability (Ashraf & Galor, 2011).
According to Ashraf & Galor (2008), the equilibrium point (point of crisis) reveals that there are positive effects of productivity of land and the transition of agriculture on population growth. Besides, the economic development of the geospatial factors that necessitate better access to natural resources has a positive impact on population increase as the Malthusian Growth Model states. The prediction of the Malthusian Development Model concerning the neutrality of the living standards in line with land production amid the level of improvement in technology represents the baseline upon which per capita income can be calculated. The Malthusian Growth Model similarly conducts conforming checks for population density by per capita revenue. The higher the population, the more the demand for resources. Therefore, an imperial analysis is provided by this model about whether land productivity is manifested in terms of sophisticated population density rather than on developed per capita income.
Conclusion
There is a strong belief that the association between per capita income and the population is complicated. Under prevailing conditions in weaker economies, mainly in the agricultural sector where there are scarce human capital plus undeveloped expertise, a high population lowers per capita incomes beside Malthusian lines. Nevertheless, the effects of Malthusian are feebler in present city economies, whereby there are minimal natural resource and agricultural sectors (Jedwab & Vollrath, 2019). These frugalities have improved density associated with increased population. Thus, immense urbanization encourages specialization with more ventures in human per capita besides a quick concentration of new awareness. The consequent of cumulative returns after the growth of experience and specialization raises per capita incomes as population increases. It is considered significant than weakening profits in sectors that are resource-controlled (Becker, Glaeser & Murphy, 1999).
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