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In his Presidential address to the American Economic Association, Gary Becker alludes to Thomas Malthus's "great contribution" (1988, p. 1) in a prologue to a wider exploratory discussion of some of the implications for macroeconomics flowing from recent programs in family economics. The content of the contribution as represented here (p. 2) includes diminishing returns to increases in employment "when land and other capital are fixed;" population growth positively related to the wage, the lower population growth at low wages turning on reduced birth rates (the preventive check) and increased death rates (the positive check); and a long-run equilibrium wage at which population is constant at a level determined by the production function. Becker emphasizes the stability of the equilibrium wage in the face of disturbances. A catastrophic reduction in population size (eg. the Black Death) and consequently a wage increase will be followed by positive population growth which restores both the wage and population size to their respective equilibrium levels. In the event of increases in the amount of usuable land, population size will become permanently higher with the wage ultimately reduced to its original long-run level. Becker represents Malthus as reaching "much more pessimistic conclusions about the long-term economic prospects of the average family" than, for example, Godwin and Condorcet who had maintained that the economic position of mankind will continue to improve over time.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- About the companion website -- Part 1 Single species populations -- Chapter 1 Density independent growth -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Fundamentals of population growth -- 1.3 Types of models -- 1.4 Density independent versus density dependent growth -- 1.5 Discrete or "geometric" growth in populations with non-overlapping generations -- 1.6 Exponential growth in populations with overlapping generations -- 1.7 Examples of exponential growth -- 1.8 Applications to human populations -- 1.9 The finite rate of increase (λ ) and the intrinsic rate of increase (r) -- 1.10 Stochastic models of population growth and population viability analysis -- 1.11 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 2 Density dependent growth and intraspecific competition -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Density dependence in populations with discrete generations -- 2.3 Density dependence in populations with overlapping generations -- 2.4 Nonlinear density dependence of birth and death rates and the Allee effect -- 2.5 Time lags and limit cycles -- 2.6 Chaos and behavior of the discrete logistic model -- 2.7 Adding stochasticity to density dependent models -- 2.8 Laboratory and field data -- 2.9 Behavioral aspects of intraspecific competition -- 2.10 Summary -- References -- Chapter 3 Population regulation -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 What is population regulation? -- 3.3 Combining density-dependent and density-independent factors -- 3.4 Tests of density dependence -- 3.5 Summary -- References -- Chapter 4 Populations with age structures -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Survivorship -- 4.3 Fertility -- 4.4 Mortality curves -- 4.5 Expectation of life -- 4.6 Net reproductive rate, generation time, and the intrinsic rate of increase -- 4.7 Age structure and the stable age distribution.

Originally published in 1957, and sponsored by the Conservation Foundation, this book assesses the impact of population growth on the island of Jamaica. Roberts does not confine himself only to statistics, but also considers the ways in which changes in population affect social structures, employment trends and land use. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in human ecology or conservation

The visible fast increase in the growth rate of world
population occurred during the second half of the twentieth century due
to the faster declines in mortality following the medical and public
health advances made around the time of World War II. The global
population growth rate after peaking of at around 1.7 to 1.9 percent per
annum in the 1970s and 1980s has since started declining and is
currently around 1.4 percent per annum. The world population more than
doubled, recording 142 percent increase, from 2.51 billion in 1950 to
around 6.07 billion in 2000 [Hakim (2000)]. Most of the increase has
been in less developed countries, from 1.68 billion in 1950 to 4.88
billion in 2000, recording 190 percent. Compared to this, the more
developed countries witnessed only a marginal increase of 43 percent
from 0.83 billion in 1950 to 1.19 billion population in 2000.

Building the Population Bomb carefully examines how the rise of the world's human population came to be understood as problematic by scientists and governments across the globe. It challenges our assumption of population growth as inherently problematic by demonstrating how it is our anxieties over population growth--and not population growth itself--that have detracted from the pursuit of economic, environmental, and reproductive justice.

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