The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development

Matteo Cervellati and Uwe Sunde

No 7199, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We propose a unified growth theory to investigate the mechanics generating the economic and demographic transition, and the role of mortality differences for comparative development. The framework can replicate the quantitative patterns in historical time series data and in contemporaneous cross-country panel data, including the bi-modal distribution of the endogenous variables across countries. The results suggest that differences in extrinsic mortality might explain a substantial part of the observed differences in the timing of the take-off across countries and the worldwide density distribution of the main variables of interest.

Keywords: development traps; economic and demographic transition; adult mortality; child mortality; quantitative analysis; unified growth model; heterogeneous human capital; comparative development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E10 J10 J13 N30 O10 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2013-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dev, nep-dge and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - revised version published in: American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2015, 7 (3), 189-225

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https://docs.iza.org/dp7199.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development (2015)
Working Paper: The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development (2013)
Working Paper: The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development (2013)
Working Paper: The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development (2013)
Working Paper: The Economic and Demographic Transition, Mortality, and Comparative Development (2008)
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