Economic Demography

by T. P. Schultz

Overview

The field of economic demography has expanded in recent years because of the perceived relevance of economic constraints to family formation and to demographic behaviour. [The increased availability of household surveys from countries at all levels of development and the advances of methods for analysing such data have encouraged empirical extensions and the testing of household demand theories.]

This authoritative collection presents in two volumes some of the influential ideas which have helped to adapt economic theory and methods to analysing the determinants and consequences of demographic behaviour and to relating such behaviour to the investments in human capital which account for much of modern economic growth.

It focuses on the following topics: the estimation of wage functions - a key building block for economic demography because it explains how human capital formation affects human productivity and contributes to economic growth; health and longevity, the second most notable source of human capital accumulation; the evolution of the household production model; cooperative and bargaining approaches to the household entity; models dealing with fertility and female labour supply; models which examine the problems of fertility and investments in child quality; an exploration of how gender affects schooling, health and wage-earning potential; the effect on wages of the size and skill of the labour supply; some historical aspects of economic demography; the effects of population growth on economic development; and questions of savings, inheritance and the economic consequences of an aging population.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781858985176
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	03/28/1998
Series:	The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics series , #86
Pages:	1224
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 3.70(d)

About the Author

Edited by T. Paul Schultz, Malcom K. Brachman Professor of Economics,Yale University, US

Table of Contents

Contents:

Acknowledgements • Introduction

Volume I:
Part I: Estimation of Wage Functions and Returns to Human Capital
Part II: Health: Length of Life, Stature and Sickness
Part III: Individual and Household Behavior: Production and Consumption
Part IV: Family Coordination: Unified and Bargaining Approaches

Volume II:
Part I: Life Cycle Choices: Marriage, Fertility, and Postschooling Training
Part II: Quality-Quantity Trade-Off: Fertility and Investments in Child Quality Part III: Gender Gap in Human Capital
Part IV: Wage Structures by Cohort Size and Skills: Supplies and Demands Part V: Pre-Industrial Economic-Demography Equilibrium
Part VI: Economic-Demography Interactions in Today’s Low-Income Countries Part VII: Savings, Intergenerational Exchange and Aging

Editorial Reviews

A two-volume collection of readings (facsimile reprints) which trace some of the ideas that have helped to adapt economic theory and methods to analyze the determinants and consequences of demographic behavior and to relate these behaviors to investments in human capital that account for much of modern economic growth. Volume I discusses estimation of wage functions and returns to human capital; length of life, stature and sickness; individual and household production and consumption; and unified and bargaining approaches. Volume II covers life cycle choices; fertility and investments in child quality; gender gap in human capital; wage structures by cohort size and skills; pre- industrial economic-demographic equilibrium; economic-demographic interactions in today's low-income countries; and savings, intergenerational exchange and aging. Both volumes contain a name index but no subject index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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