Assessing the consequences of population on the pace and process of economic growth is one of the oldest themes in the literature on economics. These assessments have varied enormously over time, spanning the highly pessimistic to the outright optimistic. A systematic review of the major studies...

A survey of the literature by economists specializing in population issues reveals a distinctly non-alarmist assessment of the impacts of rapid population growth. This is contrary to the assessments by non-specialists, and those in other fields. Economists tend to emphasize longer-run impacts,...