'Global Population Dynamics'

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Xiao Jiang and Luis Villanueva presenting “Smith, Malthus, and Recent Evidences in Global Population Dynamics.” In conventional economic theories, the change of population is determined “exogenously” outside of the economic system. However, classical political economists Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus have long argued for the “endogenous” determination of population, hence establishing a connection between economics and demography. In this paper, we borrow their ideas to empirically examine the evolution of the relationship between per capita outputs and population dynamics for the period of 1970 – 2008 on a global scale. We find empirical evidences that correspond to both Smith and Malthus’s arguments. In this paper, we also conduct a projection for the additional real income needed for the global population to stabilize. Xiao Jiang is an assistant professor of economics and a consultant for the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASAN). His research interests are international trade and development, classical political economy, economic modeling, and history of economic thought. Luis Villanueva is an assistant professor of economics and member of the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET). His research interests are economic development in third world countries, economic history of Latin America and classical political economy.