 The Damocles Malthusian swordMPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Abstract: Demand for food constant increases, according to the growth in population and income. These levels of consumption, never occurred in the past, projecting the world to unknown cenarios, soon called to have to test the validity of the slaw of Malthus and its consequences. While there are questions on the supply side capabilities to meet the demand instances, agriculture becomes the main factor of development of the economy. This leads us to outline the main developmental patterns of food consumption, increasingly exercising their influence over the entire planet. Empirical evidence shows that, after a past decline, the prices of the agricultural products present an uptrend to a set of causes. The stock variations become a significant evolutionary variable of price expectations. In their contraction, there is an increase in systemic risk. In a similar evolutionary pattern, it becomes relevant the question if there is the chance of adapting to the eventual manifestation of scarcity, or if it appears, sooner or later, unavoidable. The emergence of an excess of marginal demand could have direct effects on prices. Some shock factor (environmental, health, war, etc.) could result in famine phenomena. Keywords: Malthus's law; food consumption; Engel's law; demand elasticity; substitutes and complements goods; demography (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:82663 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.