In their pursuit of being elected, politicians might not provide their constituents with independent viewpoints, but just try to outguess popular opinion. Although such behaviour compromises the quality of policy proposals, a candidate can not resist resorting to it when the spoils of office are...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the full opportunity cost of population policies by contrasting standard models of optimal population, which consider individuals to be homogeneous laborers, with a view that considers individuals’ capacity for entrepreneurship. This paper therefore...

In December 1970, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1974 as World Population Year. Herewith, the Assembly was giving recognition to the growing involvement of the United Nations System in the population field and to the need for focussing international attention on different...

This article appears in Demographic Transition and its Consequences, Ronald D. Lee and David Reher, eds., Supplement to vol. 37 of Population and Development Review, The Population Council, New York, 2011

This article appears in Demographic Transition and its Consequences, Ronald D. Lee and David Reher, eds., Supplement to vol. 37 of Population and Development Review, The Population Council, New York, 2011

There is limited empirical evidence on whether unrestricted cash social assistance to poor pregnant women improves children's birth outcomes. Using program administrative micro-data matched to longitudinal vital statistics on the universe of births in Uruguay, we estimate that participation in a...

Pakistan launched one of the first population control programs in the late 1950s, yet has lagged far behind other countries in effective implementation over the past five decades. The primary purpose of this note is to make a clear case for formulating an integrated and effective population...