The Child is Father of the Man: Implications for the Demographic Transition

Omar Licandro () and David de la Croix ()

UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC)

Abstract: We propose a new theory of the demographic transition based on the evidence that body development during childhood is an important predictor of adult life expectancy. This theory is embodied in an OLG framework where fertility, longevity and education all result from individual decisions. The model displays different regimes, allowing the economy to move slowly from an initial Malthusian regime towards the Modern era. The dynamics reproduces the key features of the demographic transition, including the permanent increase in life expectancy, resulting from improvements in body development, the hump in both population growth and fertility, and a late increase in secondary educational attainments.

Keywords: Life Expectancy; Height; Education; Fertility; Mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 I12 N30 I20 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-lab
Date: 2009-03-10
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://pareto.uab.es/wp/2009/76509.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: ‘The Child is Father of the Man:’ Implications for the Demographic Transition (2007)
Working Paper: ÔThe child is father of the manÕ: implications for the demographic transition (2007)
Working Paper: ‘The Child is Father of the Man:’ Implications for the Demographic Transition (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aub:autbar:765.09

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in UFAE and IAE Working Papers from Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC)
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Xavier Vila ().