Endogenous Population and Fixed Input in a Growth Model With Altruism

Analyses of economic growth may treat population as an independent variable or as an endogenous one. To each of these two approaches may be associated a certain theoretical view of growth. Modern growth theories in the tradition of Ramsey and Solow are based on a constant proportional rate of population growth as the essential driving force of the mechanism with perhaps some aid from technological progress. The classical economists, especially Ricardo, rely on the idea that in the presence of fixed inputs per capita consumption tends eventually to fall and to reach a floor at which population stops growing. Dividing these two views, there is not only the question of whether population is independent of economic considerations but also that of whether there is a natural resource constraint that cannot be removed by substitution with reproductible inputs or by technological progress.