Energy use, population and growth, 1800–1970

Unified growth theory, Coal, Biomass, O13, Q43,

Population aging, health care, and growth

Population aging, Costs of health care for the elderly, Child care subsidy, O41, J13, J14,

A Cliometric Model of Unified Growth: Family Organization and Economic Growth in the Long Run of History

This chapter explores the role of gender equality on the long-run economicand demographic development path of industrialized countries. It accounts forchanges in fertility, technology and income per capita in the transition fromstagnation to sustained growth. Our unified cliometric growth model of femaleempowerment suggests that changes in gender relations, triggered byendogenous skill-biased technological progress, induce women to invest inskilled education and begin a process of human capital accumulation. At thesame time, more time spent by women in education increases the opportunitycost of having children and reduces fertility. This positive feedback loopgenerates both a demographic and an economic transition

Demographic transitions: analyzing the effects of mortality on fertility

The effect of mortality reductions on fertility is one of the main mechanisms stressed by the recent growth literature in order to explain demographic transitions. We analyze the empirical relevance of this mechanism based on the experience of developed and developing countries since 1960. We distinguish between the effects on gross and net fertility, take into account the dynamic nature of the relationship, and control for alternative explanatory factors and for endogeneity. Our results show that mortality plays a large role in fertility reductions, that the change in fertility behavior comes with a lag of about 10 years and that both net and gross fertility are affected. We find comparatively little support for explanations of the demographic transition based on changes in GDP per capita

Gender and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Issues and Evidence

This study has been prepared within the UNU-WIDER project on [ [ ]]