Do Economists Have Frequent Sex?

Abstract: 

Last year a member of the World Bank professional staff gave a lecture on development in Africa on the UC Berkeley campus. His audience asked him about rapid population growth in that continent. He immediately dismissed the question, saying that population growth did not need any special attention. It would look after itself. He was voicing an uncritical interpretation of the demographic transition, a “theory” which has as much evidence to support it as the fictitious Da Vinci Code, and like the Da Vinci Code it remains perennially popular.

Published in Population Press 2012.

Download PDF, click here

Author: 
Malcolm Potts
Martha Campbell
Publication date: 
September 25, 2012
Publication type: 
Journal Article