ch 6

Question 1

Structure of the world’s population (enumerate)

Answer 1

• Geographic region
• Age Structure and dependency burdens
• Rate of population increase
• Fertility and Mortality Trends
• Birth rates, death rates
• Total fertility rates

Question 2

The Hidden Momentum of Population Growth (enumerate)

Answer 2

• High birth rates cannot be altered overnight
• Age structure of developing country populations

Question 2

Microeconomics of family size; turns focus to individual rather than aggregate variables

Answer 2

Microeconomic Household Theory of Fertility

Question 2

The Demographic Transition (enumerate)

Answer 2

Stage I: High birthrates and death rates

Stage II: Continued high birthrates, declining death rates

Stage III: Falling birthrates and death rates, eventually stabilizing

Question 2

The idea that rising population and diminishing returns to fixed factors result in a low levels of living (population trap)

Answer 2

The Malthusian Population Trap

Question 3

Criticisms of the Malthusian Model

Answer 3

• Impact of technological progress
• Currently no positive correlation between population growth and levels of per capita income in the data

Question 4

The Demand for Children in Developing Countries (enumerate)

Answer 4

• First two or three as “consumer goods”
• Additional children as “investment goods”:
• Work on family farm, microenterprise
• Old age security motivation

Question 4

The Causes of High Fertility in Developing Countries: The Malthusian and Household Models (cont’d)

Answer 4

— The higher the household income, the greater the demand for children.
— The higher the net price of children, the lower the quantity demanded.
— The higher the prices of all other goods relative to children, the greater the quantity of children demanded.
— The greater the strength of tastes for goods relative to children, the fewer children demanded.

Question 5

Causes of, and Policy Responses to, High Fertility in
Developing Countries: Lessons from Microeconomic
Household Models

Fertility may be lowered with:

Answer 5

1. Improved women’s education, role, and status
2. Female nonagricultural wage employment
3. Rise in family income levels through shared growth
4. Reduction in infant mortality, better health care
5. Development of old-age and social security plans
6. Expanded schooling opportunities, lowered real costs
7. Lowered prices and better information on contraceptives
8. Direct incentives such as subsidy benefits
9. Policies that have the effect of reducing boy preference

Question 6

Implications. Fertility lower if

Answer 6

1. Raise women’s education, role, and status
2. More female nonagricultural wage employment
3. Rise in family income levels
4. Reduction in infant mortality
5. Development of old-age and social security
6. Expanded schooling opportunities

Question 7

Population growth: “It’s Not a Real Problem”:

The real problem is not population growth but the
following,

Answer 7

1. Underdevelopment
2. World resource depletion and environmental destruction
3. Population Distribution
4. Subordination of women

Question 7

Population growth is more a ________________ than a ____________ of underdevelopment

Answer 7

consequence than a cause

Question 8

“Population Growth Is a Real Problem”

Answer 8

— Extremist arguments
— Theoretical arguments
— Empirical arguments
> Lower economic growth
> Poverty
> Adverse impact on education
> Adverse impact on health
> Food constraints
> Impact on the environment
> Frictions over international migration

Question 9

Population__________the primary cause of lower living levels, but may be one factor

Answer 9

is not

Question 10

Some Policy Approaches

Attend to underlying socioeconomic conditions
that impact development

Family planning programs should provide
education and technological means to regulate
fertility

Developed countries have responsibilities too

Address gender bias, causes of boy preference

Question 11

What Developing Countries Can Do

Persuasion through education

Family planning programs

Address incentives and disincentives for having children
through the principal variables influencing the demand for
children

Coercion is not a good option

Raise the socioeconomic status of women

Increase employment opportunities for women (increases
opportunity cost of having more children, as in
microeconomic household theory)

Help facilitate genuine and faster development of
developing countries that still have high fertility rates

Question 12

What the Developed Countries Can Do
Generally

Address resources use inequities

More open migration policies

Question 13

How Developed Countries Can Help
Developing Countries with Their Population
Programs

Research into technology of fertility control

Financial assistance for family planning
programs