Malthus and some recent census returns

The specter of Malthus returns.

In 1798 economist Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production and thereby drove living standards back toward subsistence. We were, he argued, condemned by the tendency of population to grow geometrically while food production would increase only arithmetically. For 200 ye...

Returns to Education in India: Some Recent Evidence

This paper estimates returns to education in India using a nationally representative survey. We estimate the standard Mincerian wage equation separately for rural and urban sectors. To account for the possibility of sample selection bias, Heckman two-step procedure is used. The findings indicate that returns to education increase with the level of education and differ for rural and urban reside...

Some coverage error models for census data.

"Alternative models are presented for representing coverage error in surveys and censuses of human populations. The models are related to the capture-recapture models used in wildlife applications and to the dual-system models employed in the vital events literature. Estimation methodologies are discussed for one of the coverage error models." After a discussion of the theory underlying the ...

Malthus, medicine, and morality

together, the whole of this book is much greater than the sum of the eleven articles. This is not just because Hunter has slightly amended the original papers to add cross-references to the others, although this is undoubtedly useful, and off-sets the inevitable repetition resulting from their original composition as separate pieces. The book is greater than the sum of its parts becauseHunter s...

Darwin, Malthus, and selection.