Agricultural Employment and the Economic Transition from Malthus to Solow

B Ravikumar and Guillaume Vandenbroucke

Review, 2026, vol. 108, issue 1, 8 pages

Abstract: We develop a simple model where the final output is produced using two technologies—one with diminishing returns and another with constant returns—and labor as the sole input. We show that the rate of decline in the share of agricultural employment is a sufficient statistic for the onset of economic transition from stagnation to sustained growth. Our quantitative results are consistent with the implications for the evolution of per capita income for economies in various stages of development and structural transformation.

Keywords: Malthus; Solow; agricultural employment; economic transition; economic stagnation; economic growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O13 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedlrv:102435

DOI: 10.20955/r.2026.01

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