Effects of Population Growth on the

Economic Development
The existing state of knowledge does not warrant any clear-cut generalization as
to the effect of population growth on economic development in today's less
developed areas. Some theoretical analyses argue that high population growth
creates pressures on limited natural resources, reduces private and public capital
formation, and diverts additions to capital resources to maintaining rather than
increasing the stock of capital per worker. Others point to positive effects such
as economies of scale and specialization, the possible spur to favorable
motivation caused by increased dependency, and the more favorable attitudes,
capacities, and motivations of younger populations compared with older ones.
The actual evidence on the association between growth rates of population and
per capita income does not point to any uniform conclu sion, though the true
relationship may be obscured in a simple two-variable comparison. None of this
means that per capita income growth, currently and in the past, would have been
the same if population growth rates had been markedly higher or lower. But it is
possible that the effect of population growth on economic development has been
exaggerated, or that no single generalization is justified for countries differing
as widely in growth rates, densities, and income levels as do today's less
developed areas. Clearly there is need for more intensive re search on the actual
experience of nations, currently and in the past.
Population growth is closely tied to economic development. On the one hand,
labor shortages will slow the rate of economic growth in industrialized
countries, but on the other hand, a high birthrate in a developing country may
stress limited renewable resources. Governments in western and other
industrialized countries like Japan are challenged to create effective

immigration policies and programs to increase the birthrate, while countries

with weaker economies pursue public health policies to reduce population
growth. Globally, a smaller population presents multiple benefits from an
ecological perspective, but some economies are challenged by low birthrates
and are redirecting their need for unskilled labor to countries with higher
populations and lower wage demands.

Introduction
Economists have often neglected the impact of fundamental demographic
processes on economic growth. Bloom and Canning are among the few who
explore the effect of the demographic transition on economic growth. They
argue that it is possible that the interaction of economic growth with
population dynamics can result in a poverty trap. Consider two clubs: one
with low income and high population growth rates, while the other with high
income and low population growth rates. While transition between these clubs
may be rare, they are able to show that when it does happen, it does so very
quickly, due to the positive feedbacks between growth and the demographic
transition.
More recently, Dyson (2010) claims that mortality decline aids economic
growth and hence leads to an increase in the standard of living. As people
live longer, they tend to think more about the future and are more likely to take
risk and innovate. For instance, Bloom and Canning (2001) and Kalemli-Ozcan
(2002) find evidence in developing countries that mortality decline has the
tendency to raise educational attainment and savings rates and thus to
increase investment in both physical and human capital.

In addition to mortality decline, Dyson (2010) has identified population

growth,

fertility

and

age-structural

change

as

well

as

urban

growth/urbanization as demographic factors that affect economic growth.

Based on data from the World Bank and using a sample of forty-three
developing economies, the author finds that the growth rate of per capita GDP
is linearly dependent upon population growth, both the young and old
dependency ratios, the mortality rate. Using interaction variables in light of
the severe degree of multicollinearity among explanatory variables, the author
also find that per capita GDP growth linearly depends on population growth, the
old dependency ratio, the mortality rate, and the interactions between population
growth and both the young and old dependency ratios, between population
growth and whether or not the rate of population growth is less than 1.2 percent
per year, and the interaction term between the young dependency ratio and
whether or not the rate of population growth is less than 1.2 percent per year.
The effect of population growth on per capita GDP growth is linear and
everywhere negative. It is stronger when interaction terms are included in the
statistical model. Governments in developing countries can influence population
growth in order to stimulate growth. China provides a clear example by
suddenly introducing a collection of highly coercive methods to reduce the total
fertility rate from about 5.8 to 2.2 births per woman between 1970 and 1980.
Since a decline in fertility affects the age structure of the population of a
developing country, it is found to have no significant statistical impact on
economic growth when both the young and old dependency ratios are
included in the model. The effect of the old dependency ratio on per capita
GDP growth is always negative and stronger when interaction terms are
included in the model.

On the other hand, the interactions between the young dependency ratio and
population growth and whether or not the average annual population growth
rate is less than 1.2 percent exert a positive influence on economic growth.
Neither the level of urbanization nor urban growth has a statistically
significant impact on per capita GDP growth. This result may be due to the
fact that these two dimensions of the demographic transition exert positive and
negative effects on economic growth and these effects are self-cancelling.
Demographic transition explains a form of relationship between population and
economic development. In the western countries it has been found that they
have moved from a condition of high birth and death rates, to a condition of low
birth and death rates which led to a slow rate of growth of population. This
demographic change is known as 'Demographic Transition'. in other words,
demographic transition describes the passage through which countries move
from high birth and death rates to low ones. This has been the experience of
countries going through a process of modernizing economic and social
development.
The growth rate of population is a function of migration, birth rate and death
rate in a country. The change in population caused by net migration as a
proportion of total population of the country is almost insignificant and,
therefore, can be easily ignored. That leaves us with birth rate and death rate.
The difference between the birth rate and the death rate measures the growth
rate of population. The high population growth rates are due to high birth rate
and fast declining death rates due to better sanitation and health facilities.
However, the capacities to absorb increasing manpower are much weaker.
Furthermore, the process of economic development tends to be more capital
intensive under modern technological conditions, and hence, has less potential
of employment generation in the short run. Since the total size of the population

is already large, there is urgency for speedy achievement of demographic

transition from high birth rate to low birth rate resulting in lower population
growth.
Let us list effects of the rapid population growth in India . They are:
Providing employment to growing population: This is so because in
developing economies majority of the population is illiterate. The burden
of school age population has already shown signs of becoming
unbearable. The proportion of children in schools is increasing fast and,
vast numbers are still not covered. The absolute number or illiterate
persons increases every year. This is only an indication of the wastage of
human resources for want of appropriate development opportunities.
Problem of utilisation of manpower: Better educated manpower aspires
for occupations of greater prestige, which are opened up by the new
development efforts. Because of its capital intensive nature, the ability, of
the new economy for employment generation becomes restricted.
Simultaneously, it renders many of the old occupations out of day and
redundant. As a result, under-employment and unemployment, including
unemployment of educated persons, increases. There is thus wastage of
even developed human capital.
Over-strained infrastructure: Facilities such as housing, transportation,
health care, and education become inadequate. The worst symptoms of
congestion in every aspect of living conditions are manifested in the
urban areas. In countries such as India, a situation of "over urbanisation"
prevails which puts unbearable strain on urban amenities. Overcrowded
houses, slums and unsanitary localities, traffic congestion and crowded
hospitals have become common features in the developing countries.

 Pressure on land and other renewable natural resources: Common

properties such as forest and water are over-exploited. This results in
deforestation and desertification with permanent damage to the renewable
resources.
Increased cost of production : Human ingenuity and technological
advancement makes it possible to increase production of goods and
services. But, it must be kept in mind that, the cost of production of the
basic necessities of life, such as food, increases when the population is
growing fast and worse lands are brought into cultivation with costly
irrigation etc.
Inequitable distribution of income: Both at the international and
national levels income disparities increase. The increase in gross national
product (GNP) is greatly reduced in per capita terms on account of the
rapidly growing population. In the face of a rapidly growing population,
the major concern of a developing country tends to be focused more on
economic growth as such. Considerations of unequal distribution of
income are pushed to background. So inequalities within the country tend
to widen further.

Land and water are essential resources for the production of food and thus
constitute two of the most fundamental resources for mankind. These resources
are under pressure by population growth, economic development, and
environmental change. Essentially, tomorrows farmers need to produce more
food with fewer resources. Beyond meeting market demands, global food
production has important links to several fundamental objectives of societies
including the reduction of malnutrition and poverty, improved access to a
healthy diet, better management and allocation of fresh water resources,
increased use of renewable energy, and the protection of climate, ecosystems,
and biological diversity. Thus, insights into the future development of the
agricultural sector are of great concern to society and policymakers. To
adequately capture the complex links between food production and overall
development, integrated scientific model based assessments are needed.
A variety of past studies have examined the impacts of global development on
food production. These studies involve a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines,
methods, models, and data. Geographic and biophysical assessments often focus
on the heterogeneity of production conditions and their consequences.
Engineering assessments in the land use sector deal primarily with technological
development and associated opportunities. Economic assessments attend to
farm level and/or commodity market implications of development. In addition,
there are policy oriented assessments which examine legal instruments and
challenges for the regulation of land use and land use externalities. Studies
which combine the economic, technical, biophysical, and legal aspects of
agricultural development fall within the realm of integrated assessment studies
(e.g., Bouwman et al., 2006, Rosegrant et al., 2002a, Rosegrant et al.,
2002b and Rosenzweig et al., 2004). These relatively comprehensive studies are
able to quantify the net impacts of development over a diverse set of individual

drivers and are a clear advancement over single factor based studies. Regarding
development, the integrated studies attempt to simultaneously represent
economic development, population growth, technical progress, environmental
change, and possible policy pathways. However, integrated assessments are
only valuable if their results can be adequately understood, interpreted, and
compared to other studies. Different studies which lead to the same aggregated
results but differ greatly in individual components do not promote confidence in
scientific assessments and modeling.
In this study, we use an integrated land use assessment model to quantify and
decompose the impacts of four commonly used development scenarios on
global food production. The global agricultural and forest sector optimization
model combines at a relatively high resolution the heterogeneity of agricultural
conditions and choices with the feedback from internationally linked, global
commodity markets. In analyzing the food production implications of three
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios and the revised B1 scenario from
the Special Report on Emission Scenarios, we follow several major objectives.
First, we want to estimate regional food production impacts for each of the four
development scenarios on per capita food supply and the average ratio between
plant and animal based food. This ratio has received increasing attention for its
effects on land scarcity, greenhouse gas emissions, and human health. However,
quantitative projections of dietary changes with integrated assessment models
are rare. Furthermore, our study results can be used to crosscheck the
consistency of assumptions made for the Millennium Ecosystem Scenarios and
thus, provide methodological insights for the design of future development
scenarios. As a second major objective, we want to decompose the total food
production impacts of five exogenous drivers (population growth, gross
domestic product development, technical change, land scarcity, water scarcity)
and two alternative policies on deforestation of primary forests. To our

knowledge, such decomposition has not been done for integrated assessments of
global food production but is useful for several purposes. It increases
understanding and facilitates interpretation of the aggregated results of this food
production development study. In addition, decomposition helps to compare and
better interpret previous studies which only provide aggregated results on food
production development. Knowledge about the partial impacts of development
factors also reveals which factors dominate the overall impacts and might
therefore be most relevant to national and international policymakers.
2. Global challenges for food production
Throughout history, human populations have experienced deficiencies in food
production. Growing populations in the past have caused local over exploitation
of natural resources leading to the extinction or collapse of several ancient
societies (Diamond, 2005). However, todays resource scarcity is not only an
acute problem in isolated locations; it is also a global threat. Three arguments
may illustrate the global dimension of this threat. First, the total use of resources
for food production over all countries has reached substantial proportions. In
2005, agriculture occupied about 38% of the global land area (FAOSTAT, 2007)
yielding an average agricultural land endowment of 0.76 ha per capita. Without
technical progress and agricultural intensification and with current rates of
population growth, agriculture would need an area equivalent to one half and
two-third of the current terrestrial land area by 2030 and 2070, respectively, in
order to maintain current food consumption levels per capita. Considering the
evolution of technology, agricultural management, and food consumption
preferences; the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook projects global increases in
cropland requirements of about 9% by 2019. Existing projections of future
irrigation water consumption between 1995 and 2025 (e.g., Molden, 2007,
Postel, 1998 and Rosegrant et al., 2002b) differ substantially and range from

minus 17% to plus 228%. This variation is due to methodological and data
differences as described in Sauer et al. (2010).
The second argument supporting a global dimension of food production
challenges is that although some regions experience more problems than others,
todays societies are increasingly connected. Globalization has opened the door
to more international trade. Thus, regional commodity supply shortage or
surplus can be transferred to and mitigated by world markets. Furthermore,
globalization has also influenced governmental regulations. National land use
related policies are increasingly embedded in international policies. Since the
establishment of the United Nations in 1945, many different international
treaties have been adopted, which may particularly affect global food
production and distribution. Environmental treaties relevant to food production
include the convention on wetlands (RAMSAR convention), the Climate
Change convention, and the convention on biological diversity (CBD
convention). These treaties may limit possible expansion of agricultural land.
However, expansion of cropland might be necessary to fulfill the eight
Millennium Development Goals defined by the world leaders at the United
Nations Millennium Summit in 2002 since they include targets for the reduction
of hunger and malnutrition.
A third argument is that the cumulative impacts of local land use decisions may
cause significant global environmental feedback, foremost through climate
change (Alcamo et al., 2003, Foley et al., 2005 and Tilman et al., 2001). There
are both positive and negative agricultural impacts which influence the
availability and fertility of land (Ramankutty et al., 2002), the length of the
growing season (Lobell et al., 2008), fresh water endowments, pest occurrences,
CO2 fertilization, and the frequency of extreme events related to draughts,
flooding, fire, and frost.

Although global commodity trade and environmental policies are important

drivers for resource utilization, a variety of additional factors influence the net
impact of future development on land use and food supply. These factors
include technical progress, land use intensities, land quality variations, resource
endowments, and food demand characteristics. Technical progress and
management intensification generally reduce land scarcity.1 While improved
technologies shift the production possibility frontier outwards, intensification
moves production along a frontier by substituting one resource with another
(Samuelson, 1948). Agricultural production can be intensified by employing
more water, fertilizer, pesticides, machinery, or labor. While intensification is
often measured relative to the fixed production factor land, it may also be
related to output. In contrast to technical change, intensification increases at
least one input requirement per unit of output. Irrigation, for example, uses per
calorie less land but more water, fertilizer, and/or capital.
The variation of land quality also interacts with development. Population
growth increases food demand and therefore the demand for agricultural land.
Since rationally acting agents use the economically most suitable resource first,
additional agricultural land is likely to be less profitable. In addition, population
growth increases predominantly urban land areas (United Nations, 2004). This
expansion potentially removes high quality agricultural areas since cities are
usually built on fertile land (von Thnen, 1875). Furthermore, increased
agricultural intensity due to population growth may increase land degradation
over time. This could trigger a positive feedback loop where increased
degradation leads to more degradation through intensification. Fourth, income
growth especially in low income regions raises demand for animal based food
more than demand for plant based food. Since animal food production involves
an additional element in the food chain, it may in some cases increase land
requirements per calorie by a factor of 10 or more relative to plant food

(Gerbens-Leenes and Nonhebel, 2005). Thus, an increased demand of animal

food is likely to increase total agricultural land use and management intensities
with the above described implications.
3. A global agricultural and forest sector optimization model
To assess the complex interdependencies between population growth, economic
and technological development, and the associated relative scarcities of land
and water, we use the Global Biomass Optimization Model (GLOBIOM).
GLOBIOM is a mathematical programming model of the global agricultural and
forest sectors. Data, concept and mathematical structure of this model are
described in Havlk et al. (in press) and at www.globiom.org. The core model
equations are given in mathematical notation in Appendix. The objective
function of GLOBIOM simulates the global agricultural and forest market
equilibrium by maximizing economic surplus over all included regions and
commodities subject to restrictions on resource endowments, technologies, and
policies. The scope and resolution of regions, commodities, management
options, and resources is shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Particularly, agricultural
and forest product markets are represented by 28 international regions covering
the entire world. The definition of regions is consistent with 11 larger regions
used in energy (Messner and Strubegger, 1995) and pollution abatement models
(Amann, 2004) of IIASAs Greenhouse Gas Initiative and with the definition of
more detailed regions from the POLES model (Criqui et al., 1999). Common
region definitions facilitate the linkage of GLOBIOM with energy models in the
context of climate and energy sustainability assessments.
Commodity demand is specified as downward sloped function with constant
own-price elasticities. The model accounts for the annual net trade between all
28 regions. Demand data include observed pricequantity pairs for domestic
demand, imports and exports, own-price elasticities of demand. For agricultural
products, prices and quantities are taken from FAOSTAT (2007). Own-price

elasticities of agricultural commodity demand are taken from Seale et al.

(2003). The specification of demand for forest commodities is based on data
developed by Rametsteiner et al. (2007). The model explicitly depicts factor
endowments in each region for (a) agricultural, forest, and other natural lands
and (b) land suitable for irrigation. Irrigation water supply is depicted as
constant elasticity, upward sloped function. The price elasticity of water supply
equals 0.3 for all regions based on estimations by Darwin et al. (1995).
Agricultural and forest production activities are portrayed in more detail than
commodity markets and distinguish 165 individual countries with 137 land
quality classes, 18 crop and six forest commodities, seven bioenergy types, and
five irrigation alternatives (Table 2). The land quality classes are referred to as
homogenous response units (HRU) and are based on differences in altitude, soil
texture, and slope. The highest diversity in land quality is observed in Indonesia
with 97 HRUs. Livestock production in each region is represented as one
composite activity keeping production from major individual activities, their
feed and land requirements in fixed proportions. Crop and livestock production
data are taken from FAOSTAT (2007), where national averages are used as base
reference levels for yields, harvested areas, prices, production, consumption,
trade, and supply utilization. Management specific crop yields and crop specific
irrigation water requirements are simulated with the environmental policy
integrated climate (EPIC) model (Williams, 1995). These yields are calibrated
such that the area weighted average yield aggregated over all observed
management options in a country equals the reported yield from FAO. The costs
and technical restrictions for five irrigation systems are derived from a variety
of sources and are described in more detail in Sauer et al. (2010). Traditional
forest management is based on the 4DSM model developed by Rametsteiner et
al. (2007). Production costs are compiled from an internal database at IIASAs
Forestry Program.

When the uncalibrated GLOBIOM is solved for the base period, it does not
closely reproduce observed activity levels. There are a variety of reasons for
deviations. First, some data which influence land use decisions are difficult or
impossible to obtain. These include impacts of crop rotations on yields, costs,
labor, and machinery, which are often not available beyond a number of
individual case studies. Second, some data are inaccurate because of
measurement errors, inconsistent data collection methods, or insufficient
resolution of the data. Third, our model operates at the sector level and does not
explicitly portray many farm specific details, commodity qualities, and other
local differences. Fourth, we assume competitive markets and rational behavior.
To bring base solutions close to observation, we calibrate the direct costs for
land management alternatives. Following classical economic theory, we linearly
adjust the cost of each management option such that at base year commodity
and factor prices, marginal revenues equal marginal costs (Wiborg et al., 2005).
Trade costs for observed trading routes are calibrated with a non-linear cost
function such that the solved trade levels for the base period are close to
observed net exports.
The GLOBIOM modeling approach can be put in perspective with alternative
methods. Previous land use assessments may be distinguished regarding (a) the
flow of information in top-down and bottom-up systems, (b) the dominating
analysis technique in engineering, econometric, and optimization approaches,
(c) the system dynamics in static equilibrium, recursive dynamic, and fully
dynamic designs, (d) the spatial scope in farm level, regional, national, multinational, and global representations, and (e) the sectoral scope in agricultural,
forestry, multi-sector, and full economy models. Additional differences involve
various modeling assumptions about market structure and the applied resolution
over space, time, technologies, commodities, resources, and environmental
impacts and associated data. For details on existing land use models, we refer to

Lambin et al., 2000 and Heistermann et al., 2006 and van der Werf and Peterson
(2007). Applying classifications (a)(e), our model can be characterized as
bottom-up, optimization, recursive dynamic, global, agricultural and forest
sector model.
4. Scenarios of global development
In this study, we assess and decompose global food production impacts of four
global development scenarios. These scenarios have been used to study climate
and energy sector development within an exercise organized for the Energy
Modeling Forum 22: Climate policy scenarios for stabilization and in transition.
We include the scenarios Global Orchestration, Order from Strength, and
Adaptation Mosaic of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, Carpenter
and Pingali, 2005) and a revised B1 baseline emission scenario of the Special
Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES, Nakicenovic and Swart, 2000). Global
Orchestration focuses on increased globalization emphasizing economic growth
and public goods provision. The Order from Strength scenario has a
regionalized approach focusing on national security and self sustenance,
whereas the Adapting Mosaic scenario focuses on local adaptation and flexible
governance. The B1 scenario is characterized by increasing use of clean and
efficient technologies with global-scale cooperation.
Each scenario includes specific values on regional population growth and
migration, gross domestic product development, and on the combined impacts
of technical and environmental change. These values are exogenous to
GLOBIOM and are summarized at global level in Table 3. Crop and livestock
productivity changes are close to 1% increase per year and decline over time.
The values are country and commodity specific rates compiled by the
International Food and Policy Research Institute for each of the four
development scenarios. The estimates of population growth decline over time
reflecting demographic transition. Population changes are used to calculate

exogenous shifts in resource endowments for land and water (last two row
sections in Table 3). Land endowment changes are approximated by dividing
the decadal change in population by regional specific urban population
densities. We assume that increased urbanization decreases arable land because
cities are usually located in agriculturally productive areas. By 2030,
urbanization acquires an area of about 3% of the current cropland area. Values
differ slightly across development pathways depending on the assumed rates of
population growth. Population growth is also assumed to shift the agricultural
water supply function. The total non-agricultural water use increases between
228 km3 (Global Orchestration) and 277 km3 (Order from Strength) relative to
the year 2000. It should be noted that all aggregates hide the underlying regional
values, which may substantially differ across the four examined development
pathways.