On Aggregate Empirical Studies Relating Population Variables to Economic Development

Empirical studies of the cross-national relationship between the rates of economic development and population growth may reasonably be interpreted as providing consistently strong evidence of the absence of a negative causal effect of the latter upon the former. The most important positive effects of additional people--improvement of productivity through the contribution of new ideas and the learning-by-doing resulting from increased production volume--appear in the long run and are cumulative. Together with this positive long-term effect the absence of an observed negative medium-term effect upon economic growth is adduced as sufficient evidence that in the very long run more people have a positive net effect. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)