Population and Agricultural Development Models: The Promise of the Third Generation

Abstract

The first and second generation economic demographic models concentrated on the consequences of population growth. These were judged negative in the former, or possibly having some positive Kuznetsian effects in the latter. The proposed third-generation model examines conjointly both consequences and determinants of population growth, and analyzes them at the level of the agricultural household. In such a model the effects of population growth on agricultural development cannot be determined a priori but become the subject of empirical investigation.