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Population Growth and Economic Development Policy Questions (1986) / Chapter Skim
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7 Will slower population growth decrease the degree of inequality in the distribution of income?
Pages 62-65

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From page 62...
... One important question is whether inequality should be measured on a per capita basis or on a per household basis. Since larger households in developing countries tend to have higher total incomes but lower per capita incomes (Snnivasen and Bardhan, 1974; Kuznets, 1976)
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From page 63...
... , then per capita income inequality will increase. When a fertility change is induced by a government-sponsored family planning program, the effects just described will be exaggerated: subsidized family planning services are themselves a form of income to the household, and whichever income groups take greater advantage of the services will have not only higher per capita incomes in the short term, but also greater increases in imputed income from increased service availability.
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From page 64...
... They conclude that faster population grown has produced greater income inequality in the United States, with a major role played by faster population growth depressing relative wages. Behrman and Birdsall (1985)
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From page 65...
... To the extent that publicly supported family planning programs are targeted at the poor and permit them to exercise greater fertility control than they otherwise might, per capita income inequality will be reduced. Longer term effects, which have mainly been investigated in the economic histories of now~eveloped countries, tend to confirm theoretical predictions that slower population growth will decrease income inequality by increasing the rate of return to labor relative to returns to other factors of production.
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Key Terms

  • income inequality
  • fertility change
  • capita income
  • family planning
  • government expenditures

  • relative size
  • faster population
  • fertility decline
  • income distribution
  • proportionally larger

  • labor relative
  • capita incomes
  • capita measures
  • income class
  • term effects

  • quantity limits
  • population grown
  • unmeasured effect
  • evidence suggesting
  • positively associated

  • depressing relative
  • agricultural wages
  • historical evidence
  • net implication
  • total income

  • growth slows
  • standard measures
  • relative wages
  • whichever income
  • positive function


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