User menu

Accès à distance ? S'identifier sur le proxy UCLouvain

Early Mortality Declines at the Dawn of Modern Growth

Primary tabs

Boucekkine, Raouf [UCL] de la Croix, David [UCL] Licandro-Goldaracena, Omar [UCL]

We explore the hypothesis that demographic changes which began in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are at the root of the acceleration in growth rates at the dawn of the modern age. During this period, life tables for Geneva and Venice show a decline in adult mortality; French marriage registers reveal an important increase in literacy; historians measure an acceleration of economic growth. We develop an endogenous growth model with a realistic survival law in which rising longevity increases individual incentives to invest in education and fosters growth. We quantitatively estimate that the observed improvements in adult mortality account for 70% of the growth acceleration in the pre‐industrial age.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article)
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2003
Language Anglais
Journal information "Scandinavian Journal of Economics" - Vol. 105, no. 3, p. 401-418 (Septembre 2003)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (Oxford, United Kingdom)
issn 0347-0520
Publication status Publié
Affiliations UCL - EUEN/CORE - Center for operations research and econometrics
UCL - EUEN/CORE - Center for operations research and econometrics
European University Institute
Keywords Human capital ; Longevity ; Literacy ; Growth ; Schooling
Links
  1. Bairoch P., Cities and Economic Development: From the Dawn of History to the Present (1991)
  2. Beltrami D., Atti dell'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 109 (1951)
  3. Boucekkine Raouf, de la Croix David, Licandro Omar, Vintage Human Capital, Demographic Trends, and Endogenous Growth, 10.1006/jeth.2001.2854
  4. Chartier R., L'education en France du XVIe au XVIIIe siecle (1976)
  5. Cipolla C., Literacy and Development in the West (1969)
  6. G. Clark, 2002 , The Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution: England, 1500-1912 , Mimeo, University of California, Davis.
  7. Crafts N., The Economic History of Britain since 1700 (1994)
  8. de la Croix David, Licandro Omar, Life expectancy and endogenous growth, 10.1016/s0165-1765(99)00139-1
  9. M. Doepke, 1999 , The Demographic Transition, Income Distribution and the Transition from Agriculture to Industry , Mimeo, University of California, Los Angeles.
  10. Fleury M. and, Population, 71 (1957)
  11. Fridlizius G., Pre-industrial Population Change, 71 (1985)
  12. Galor O. and, American Economic Review, 90, 806 (2000)
  13. G. and Hansen, and E. Prescott, 1998 , Malthus to Solow , NBER Working Paper no. 6858.
  14. Heckman James J., A Life-Cycle Model of Earnings, Learning, and Consumption, 10.1086/260531
  15. C. Jones, 2001 , Was an Industrial Revolution Inevitable? Economic Growth over the Very Long-run , Mimeo, Stanford University.
  16. Kalemli-Ozcan S., Journal of Development Economics, 62, 1 (2000)
  17. Marczewski J., Economic Development and Cultural Change, 9, 369 (1961)
  18. Maddison A., Phases of Capitalist Development (1982)
  19. Maddison A., The World Economy-A Millennial Perspective (2001)
  20. Perrenoud Alfred, La mortalité à Genève de 1625 à 1825, 10.3406/adh.1978.1385
  21. Perrenoud A., Pre-industrial Population Change, 41 (1985)
  22. Riley James C., Rising Life Expectancy : A Global History, ISBN:9781316036495, 10.1017/cbo9781316036495
  23. Rostow W., The Stages of Economic Growth (1960)
  24. S. Schama, 1977 , Patriots and Liberators. Revolution in the Netherlands , 1780 -1813 , Collins, London.
  25. Stokey Nancy L., A quantitative model of the British industrial revolution, 1780–1850, 10.1016/s0167-2231(01)80003-8
  26. Stone L., Past and Present, 42, 69 (1969)
  27. Vallin J., The Decline in Mortality in Europe (1991)
  28. Wrigley E. and, The Population History of England, 1541-1871: A Reconstruction (1981)
Bibliographic reference Boucekkine, Raouf ; de la Croix, David ; Licandro-Goldaracena, Omar. Early Mortality Declines at the Dawn of Modern Growth. In: Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 105, no. 3, p. 401-418 (Septembre 2003)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/23176