Continued Global Population Growth Seriously Limits the Prospects for Essay - 1

Continued Global Population Growth Seriously Limits the Prospects for Development - Essay Example Many economists have conventionally tried to explore this relationship, and have found alarming consequences of population growth on development, though some economists tend to adopt a more optimistic view about the benefits of increased workforce resulting from the population growth considering the â€Å"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† (Easterlin, 1967). Analysis of the long-cultivated debate about the consequences of population growth, the central question that appears in the limelight is; do the positive effects of population growth on the economic development of a nation outweigh the consequential negativities? This paper tends to evaluate the effect of population growth on the development by comparing the merits and demerits of increase in population. The first English economist who estimated the effects of population growth upon economy was Thomas Robert Malthus In 1798, Malthus presented a theory stating that rate of increase of population causes underdevelopment (Cobridge, 1986, p. 82). In the long run, this trend can cause such problems as starvation, famine and wars over possession of water, land and natural resources. It was because of the very gloomy forecast of the effects of population growth on development made by Malthus that people began to refer to Economics as â€Å"the dismal science† (Hall, 2011). It can be observed in general that a vast majority of industrialized nations have extremely low birth rates whereas a lot of developing and underdeveloped countries have very high birth rates. The birth rate is one potential factor that tells an underdeveloped country from an advanced country since many if not all advanced countries have very low birth rates and the trend is on the other pole of the scale for the underdeveloped countries generally. This was also confirmed in 1958 by the findings of the research conducted by Edgar Hoover and Ansley Coale (Hall, 2011).  These researchers found an inverse relationship between economic and population growth.  Ã‚