----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- EHS Abstract Submission (c) 2000 EH.Net ----------------------------------------------------------- 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 Country/Region: ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]