This paper argues that the secular decline in mortality, which began during the eighteenth century, is still in progress and will probably continue for another century or more. The evolutionary perspective presented in this paper focuses not only on the environment, which from the standpoint of human health and prosperity has become much more favorable than it was in Malthus's time, but also on changes in human physiology over the past three centuries which affect both economic and biomedical processes. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the interconnectedness of events and process over the life cycle and, by implication, between generations.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Historical Working Papers with number
0054.
Length: Date of creation: Mar 1994 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberhi:0054
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