Population issues are everywhere. In much of the world, the human life span has doubled, birth rates have fallen below replacement, marriages are postponed or foregone, and divorce is common. In other places, rapid population growth seems to impede economic development. Public policy makers and voters worry about the burdens imposed by aging populations, ask whether immigrants help or harm the economy, and try to assess the effect of population on environmental quality.
This course uses economic models to study the causes and consequences of changing population size and structure.
Topics include:
- Determinants of population growth and decline
- Relationship between population change and economic development
- Economics of mortality
- Economics of fertility
- Economics of household formation, marriage and divorce
- Economics of migration
- Causes and impacts of changing age structure