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...

Unified growth theory predicts that the timing of the fertility transition is a key determinant of contemporary comparative development, as it marks the onset of the take-off to sustained growth. Neoclassical growth theory presupposes a take-off, and explains comparative development by...

The paper analyzes an economy with an agrarian and an industrial sector. Demand is determined by Engel's Law. Population growth follows a non-linear income dependent path according to the theory of demographic transition. In case of decreasing returns to scale in the agrarian sector the...

This article investigates economic performance when enforceable property rights are missing and basic needs matter for consumption. It suggests a new view of the so-called voracity effect according to which windfall gains in productivity induce behavior that leads to lower economic growth....

This paper introduces wealth-dependent time preference into a simple model of endogenous growth. The model generates adjustment dynamics in line with the historical facts on savings and economic growth in Europe from the High Middle Ages to today. Along a virtuous cycle of development more...

This research examines the physical constraints on the growth process. In order to run, maintain and build capital energy is required to be distributed to geographically dispersed sites where investments are deemed profitable. We capture this aspect of physical reality by a network theory of...

Simple problems of discrete-time optimal control can be solved using a standard spreadsheet software. The employed-solution method of backward iteration is intuitively understandable, does not require any programming skills, and is easy to implement so that it is suitable for classroom exercises...