The Role of Mortality in the Transmission of Knowledge

We investigate, both theoretically and quantitatively, a previously unexplored link between adult mortality and growth. Our mechanism allocates a central role to individuals as carriers of useful ideas and to personal contact as an important means of passing on the useful ideas to future generations. It thus implies that disrupting a human life will impede the process of knowledge transmission across generations. We embed this mechanism in a simple model of endogenous growth and fertility and use it to study its relevance in the application to the long-run growth experience of England.