The Linkage between Fertility and Labor Productivity: A European Perspective

We estimate vector error-correction models and vector autoregression models, respectively, for 13 European countries (1970–2005) to examine the — widely debated — relationship between population growth and economic growth. While for most European countries we find a positive long-run relationship, some countries show a negative linkage. We also analyze short-term interdependencies and find evidence that the relationship between productivity and reproductivity may have changed over time.