IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/pal/intecp/978-1-349-02518-3_2.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The Optimum Rate of Population Growth

In: Economic Factors in Population Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Guillaumont

    (Université De Clermont)

Abstract

In the great theoretical and political discussion of today concerning the economic consequences of population growth, the notion of the optimum rate of population growth should, one might think, have a particularly important place. In fact, it has been strangely ignored. It has certainly been implicit in the formulation of various recent doctrinal issues. The zero rate of population growth proposed more and more often for the United States, as also for the rest of the world, represents one extreme concept of the optimum rate of population growth. But whilst this slogan—decked out with graphs and calculations — has more effect on public opinion than a more elaborate theory, this has not resulted in more light being shed on the discussion. The discussion has merely become more topical, which brings us back to the question: Why has this idea been so little investigated? Are we to think that economists are avoiding the essential or that the idea of an optimum rate of population growth is without foundation? Whilst such a concept seems to be suggested by common sense, in view of the contradictory statements of theory, the latter scarcely appears to support it.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Guillaumont, 1976. "The Optimum Rate of Population Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: Ansley J. Coale (ed.), Economic Factors in Population Growth, chapter 2, pages 29-62, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-02518-3_2
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-02518-3_2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-02518-3_2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.