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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:20 2006 |
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EHS Abstract Submission
(c) 2000 EH.Net
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Name: Mauro Boianovsky
Email: [log in to unmask]
Institution: Universidade de Brasilia
Co-author:
Title: Economists as Demographers: Wicksell and Pareto on
Population
Type of work: C
Internet Address
of abstracted work:
By mail:
Department of Economics
Universidade de Brasilia
Brasilia DF 70910-900
Brazil
Language: English
Abstract:
Demography established itself as a separate discipline in the last
quarter of the 19th century and especially the first two decades of the
20th (the Lotka era). That was also the period when neoclassical economics
became dominant. Many historians of thought have suggested that this
development can be in part explained by the irrelevance of population
growth for the statical marginal utility system, in contrast with the
dynamic approach of classical economics. But this is a non sequitur. The
question that should be asked is whether neoclassical economists applied
the concept of utility maximization to the study of population. I argue
that the topic was an important one for Knut Wicksell and Vilfredo Pareto,
who introduced, respectively, the notions of optimum population (the
population size that maximizes utility per capita) and of what may be
called Pareto optimum population (the rate of population growth consistent
with competitive efficiency). Like the classical economists before them,
Wicksell and Pareto did not contribute to the hard core of demography, with
the possible exceptions of the use by Wicksell of a succession of survival
curves to interpret the age composition of population, and of the fitting
of a curve to mortality date, carried out by Pareto. Their contributions to
the interdisciplinary periphery of demography were not, however, extended
to the treatment of children as consumption goods and to the discussion of
time allocation decisions by parents. Interestingly enough, it was Lujo
Brentano, a member of the so-called German Historical School, who
introduced those elements in his interpretation of demographic transition
in early 20th century.
Bibliography: Chapter 5 in G. Erreygers (ed): Economics and
Interdisciplinary Exchange. London: Routledge, 2001.
Subject: B13
Geographical Area: 0
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