Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?

Our study examines the effect of environmental factors on the economic decisions regarding fertility. We incorporate health-damaging pollution into a three period overlapping generations model in which life expectancy, fertility and economic growth are all endogenous. We show that environmental fa...

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Main Authors: Varvarigos, Dimitrios, Zakaria, Intan Zanariah
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Wiley 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/1/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/2/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth_SCOPUS.pdf
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author Varvarigos, Dimitrios
Zakaria, Intan Zanariah
author_facet Varvarigos, Dimitrios
Zakaria, Intan Zanariah
author_sort Varvarigos, Dimitrios
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
description Our study examines the effect of environmental factors on the economic decisions regarding fertility. We incorporate health-damaging pollution into a three period overlapping generations model in which life expectancy, fertility and economic growth are all endogenous. We show that environmental factors can cause significant changes to the economy’s demographics. In particular, the entrepreneurial choice of less polluting production processes, induced by a tax on emissions, can at some point in time lead to such changes as higher longevity and lower fertility rates. Thus, we provide a novel explanation on the positive relation between fertility rates and pollution. According to this, the causality on this relation may also work from the latter to the former. Furthermore, our model can account for the empirically observed N-shaped correlation between pollution and income per capita.
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language English
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spelling iium-563762017-06-15T04:14:52Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/ Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter? Varvarigos, Dimitrios Zakaria, Intan Zanariah HB Economic Theory Our study examines the effect of environmental factors on the economic decisions regarding fertility. We incorporate health-damaging pollution into a three period overlapping generations model in which life expectancy, fertility and economic growth are all endogenous. We show that environmental factors can cause significant changes to the economy’s demographics. In particular, the entrepreneurial choice of less polluting production processes, induced by a tax on emissions, can at some point in time lead to such changes as higher longevity and lower fertility rates. Thus, we provide a novel explanation on the positive relation between fertility rates and pollution. According to this, the causality on this relation may also work from the latter to the former. Furthermore, our model can account for the empirically observed N-shaped correlation between pollution and income per capita. Wiley 2017-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/1/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/2/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth_SCOPUS.pdf Varvarigos, Dimitrios and Zakaria, Intan Zanariah (2017) Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter? Review of Development Economics,, 21 (1). pp. 43-66. E-ISSN 1467-9361 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rode.12239/epdf 10.1111/rode.12239
spellingShingle HB Economic Theory
Varvarigos, Dimitrios
Zakaria, Intan Zanariah
Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title_full Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title_fullStr Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title_full_unstemmed Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title_short Longevity, fertility and economic growth: Do environmental factors matter?
title_sort longevity, fertility and economic growth: do environmental factors matter?
topic HB Economic Theory
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/1/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/56376/2/56376-Longevity%2C%20Fertility%20and%20Economic%20Growth_SCOPUS.pdf