It is widely argued that declining fertility slows the pace of economic growth in industrialized countries through its negative effect on labor supply. There are, however, theoretical arguments suggesting that the effect of falling fertility on effective labor supply can be offset by associated...

We reconcile theory and evidence on the relationship between economic prosperity and population growth in an R&D-based growth model. We show that the negative effect of population growth outweighs the positive effect in industrialized countries with well-developed public education sectors.