Impatience to Consume and Population Growth in a Simple Agrarian Economy
Publikation: Working paper › Forskning
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Impatience to Consume and Population Growth in a Simple Agrarian Economy. / Amundsen, Eirik Schrøder; Skonhoft, Anders .
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, 2022.Publikation: Working paper › Forskning
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TY - UNPB
T1 - Impatience to Consume and Population Growth in a Simple Agrarian Economy
AU - Amundsen, Eirik Schrøder
AU - Skonhoft, Anders
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This paper studies the relationship between population size and the rate of time preference (RTP) in pre-capitalist subsistence agricultural communities. The RTP is reflected in the community´s propensity to invest in and maintain new arable land that may be considered as an inherent characteristic of the considered community. Using a Malthusian framework, we show how communities with a low RTP end up with a high steady-state subsistence population compared to communities with a high RTP. Furthermore, unsustainable “optimum population” sizes are identified where consumption per capita has a maximal value. Finally, the paper shows that the population growth rate may have no bearing on the resulting subsistence steady-state population size. A population with a higher growth rate only reaches the subsistence steady-state population size faster and have a lower maximal consumption per capita along the path to the subsistence level.
AB - This paper studies the relationship between population size and the rate of time preference (RTP) in pre-capitalist subsistence agricultural communities. The RTP is reflected in the community´s propensity to invest in and maintain new arable land that may be considered as an inherent characteristic of the considered community. Using a Malthusian framework, we show how communities with a low RTP end up with a high steady-state subsistence population compared to communities with a high RTP. Furthermore, unsustainable “optimum population” sizes are identified where consumption per capita has a maximal value. Finally, the paper shows that the population growth rate may have no bearing on the resulting subsistence steady-state population size. A population with a higher growth rate only reaches the subsistence steady-state population size faster and have a lower maximal consumption per capita along the path to the subsistence level.
M3 - Working paper
T3 - IFRO Working Paper
BT - Impatience to Consume and Population Growth in a Simple Agrarian Economy
PB - Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen
ER -
ID: 291811620