This book studies the process of demographic transition which has played a key role in the economic development of Western countries. The special focus is on France, which constitutes the first clear case of fertility decline in Europe. The book analyzes the reasons behind this phenomenon by...

Recent theoretical developments in growth models, triggered particularly by unified theories of growth, suggest that the child quantity-quality trade-off is a defining element in our explanation of a transition from Malthusian stagnation to a sustained growth path. This paper presents a model...

One of the main themes covered over the past decade in the macroeconomic literature is that of the convergence of regional or national economies. This research approach is applied to the evolution of the weight of French higher education in the total numbers of school enrolment during the period...

Cet article vise à confronter l’évolution des salaires au développement socio-économique de la France aux 19ème et 20ème siècles. Nous cherchons à détecter les chocs temporaires et permanents qui ont affecté la croissance des salaires réels français depuis le début du 19ème...

This paper presents a cliometric application of fractional integrated processes to socio-economic time series for France and Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. The analysis leads to a significant result: no short or long term cycle appears as the dominant constituent.

The development of education (essentially primary schooling) has been considered since the beginning of the nineteenth century as a major process and notably characteristic of developed capitalist societies. This being so, in spite of abundant literature devoted to this extremely delicate...

Much of the economic growth literature has focused on the contribution of human capital to national development. Two assumptions have remained largely unexamined: (I) economic stability results from economic growth, and (II) investments in human capital result in economic growth (ceteris...