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Durabilité: Malthus revisité?
Author(s) -
Brander James A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.00398.x
Subject(s) - sustainability , population explosion , standard of living , population growth , population , sustainable development , demographic transition , economics , crash , economic growth , fertility , political science , development economics , environmental ethics , ecology , sociology , demography , computer science , biology , market economy , philosophy , law , programming language
. The sustainability debate concerns whether the world will experience stable or improving living standards for the foreseeable future, or whether the current trajectory will overtax the natural environment, leading to a ‘crash’ in living standards. This paper selectively reviews relevant research, focusing on both ecological concerns and technological progress, and asks whether sustainability would be problematic without rapid population growth. I suggest that continued demographic transition to lower fertility is the primary requirement for achieving sustainable development. This is, effectively, a modern translation of Malthus (1798). The paper also discusses the role of the Malthusian cycle in human evolution.