Economics 466: Economic Demography

Department of Economics, University of Michigan

Winter 1997

Instructor: David Lam, Professor of Economics

Teaching Assistant: Patrick McGuire

Reading List

I. Historical Patterns of Demographic and Economic Change

A. Introduction to Demographic Rates and Population Dynamics

Joseph McFalls, Jr., "Population: A Lively Introduction," Population Bulletin, October 1991, Vol. 46, No. 2.

Lecture notes on demographic rates.

Population Reference Bureau, World Population Data Sheet, 1996.

B. Malthus and Economic-Demographic Equilibrium

T. Paul Schultz, Chapter 2, "Preindustrial Equilibrium: A Malthusian Perspective," pp. 9-33, in Economics of Population, Addison-Wesley, 1981.

Wayne Nafziger, Chapter 9, "Population and Development," in Economics of Development, Prentice Hall, 1990.

II. Economic Determinants of Population Change

A. The Economics of Time Allocation and Labor Supply: The New Home Economics

Gary Becker, "Nobel Lecture: The Economic Way of Looking at Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, June 1993, pp. 385--409.

Gary Becker, "A Theory of the Allocation of Time," The Economic Journal, September 1965, pp. 493--517.

B. Economics of Fertility and Women's Labor Supply in High-Income Countries

Suzanne Bianchi, "Changing Economic Roles of Women and Men," Chapter 3 in State of the Union, Reynolds Farley, ed., Russell Sage Foundation, 1994.

T. Paul Schultz, ``The Value and Allocation of Time in High-Income Countries: Implications for Fertility,'' in K. Davis, M.S. Bernstam, and R. Ricardo-Campbell, editors, Below-Replacement Fertility in Industrial Societies: Causes, Consequences, Pol icies, supplement to Population and Development Review, 1986.

C. Economics of Fertility in Developing Countries

Lori S. Ashford, ``New Perspectives on Population: Lessons from Cairo,'' Population Bulletin , March 1995, Vol. 50, No. 1.

Lawrence H. Summers, ``Investing in All the People,'' Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter 1992, pp. 367--393.

David Lam and Suzanne Duryea, ``Effects of Schooling on Fertility, Labor Supply, and Investments in Children, With Evidence from Brazil,'' Population Studies Center Research Report, University of Michigan, September 1996.

D. Economics of Marriage

Gary Becker, ``A Theory of Marriage: Part I,'' Journal of Political Economy, July/August 1973, pp. 813--836, 841--846.

E. Family Structure and Poverty

Carol De Vita, ``The United States at Mid-Decade,'' PRB Population Bulletin, March 1966, section on "American Families," pp. 30--40.

Sara McLanahan and Lynn Casper, ``Growing Diversity and Inequality in the American Family,'' in State of the Union, Reynolds Farley, ed., Russell Sage, Vol. 2, 1994.

Mary Jo Bane, ``Household Composition and Poverty,'' in Fighting Poverty} by Danziger and Weinberg, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986, pp. 209--231.

Sara McLanahan, ``The Consequences of Single Motherhood,'' The American Prospect, Fall 1995, pp. 48--58.

III. The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change

A. The Economic Effects of Population Growth

Nancy Birdsall, ``Economic Analyses of Rapid Population Growth,'' World Bank Research Observer, January 1989, pp. 23--50.

Theodore W. Schultz, ``Nobel Lecture: The Economics of Being Poor,'' Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 88, No. 4, August 1980, pp. 639--650.

B. Population Growth and Natural Resources

Garrett Hardin, ``The Tragedy of the Commons,'' Science, December 1968, 1243-1248.

John Tierney, ``Betting the Planet,'' New York Times Magazine, December 2, 1990.

Landis MacKellar and David Horlacher, ``Population, Living Standards, and Sustainability: An Economic View,'' in Laurie Ann Mazur, editor, {Beyond the Numbers: A Reader on Population, Consumption, and the Environment, Island Press: Washington, D.C. , 1994.

C. Age Structure and its Economic Consequences

Carol De Vita, ``The United States at Mid-Decade,'' PRB Population Bulletin, March 1966, section on "Changing Age Structure," pp. 11--16.

Ansley Coale, ``How a Population Ages or Grows Younger,'' in William Peterson, editor, Readings in Population, Macmillan, 1972, pp. 115--120.

D. Externalities to Childbearing and Population Policy

Samuel Preston, ``Are the Economic Consequences of Population Growth a Sound Basis for Population Policy,'' in Jane Menken, editor, World Population and U.S. Policy: The Choices Ahead, W. W. Norton, 1986, pp. 67--95.

Ronald Lee, ``Population Policy and Externalities to Childbearing,'' \annals, July 1990, pp. 17--32.

E. Economic Links Between Generations

Samuel Preston, ``Children and the Elderly: Divergent Paths for America's Dependents,'' Demography, v. 21, no. 4, November 1984, pp. 435--458.

Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy, ``The Family and the State,'' Journal of Law and Economics, April 1988, pp. 1--18.