Is there a long-run relationship between population growth and living standards? The case of India

This note examines the existence of a long-run, cointegrating relationship between population and per capita GDP in India for 1950-93. Unit root tests show that per capita GDP is integrated of order one while population is integrated of order zero; further, estimation of the bi-variate relationship using the cointegration procedure of Johansen shows that no long-run relationship exists. Thus, population growth neither causes per capita income growth nor is caused by it. A corollary is that population growth neither stimulates per capita income growth nor detracts from it.