Answer to Question #198202 in Economics for AAA

Question

• Discuss the shortcomings of the theory • Do you think that technological advancement would help to increase the per capita gain at a faster rate than population growth, to minimise the Malthusian gap?

Answer 1

The modern formulation of the Malthusian theory was developed by Kumarul Ashraf and Oded Galor. Their theoretical structure suggests that as long as (i) higher incomes have a positive effect on reproductive success and (ii) land is a limiting factor of production, technological progress has only a temporary effect on per capita income. While technological progress increases per capita income in the short term, the resource abundance created by technological progress will enable population growth and ultimately return per capita income to its original long-term level.

The theory's testable prediction is that during the Malthusian era, technologically advanced economies were characterized by higher population densities, but their per capita income did not differ from that of societies that were technologically backward.

Some researchers argue that the breakthrough in Britain was due to technological improvements and structural changes that moved away from agricultural production, while coal, capital, and trade played a secondary role. Historian and economist Gregory Clark, drawing on the ideas of Galore and Moab, in his book Farewell to Alms, argued that the British breakthrough could have been caused by differences in the rate of reproduction. among the rich and the poor (the rich were more likely to get married, had more children, and in a society where the disease was rampant and infant mortality sometimes approached 50%, children from the upper strata of society were more likely to live into adulthood than poor children.) This, in turn, led to sustained “downward mobility”: descendants of the wealthy became more numerous in British society and spread middle-class values ​​such as hard work and literacy.