-optimization model with sharecropping, endogenous fertility and status seeking. We show that tenant farming is the major obstacle to … escaping the Malthusian trap with high fertility and low productivity. A land reform provides peasant families higher returns … decreases fertility and increases productivity in agriculture in the short and long runs. The European demographic history …

model with endogenous fertility. There exists a pseudo- Malthusian equilibrium in which population is constant and income …. The stability properties are driven by (i) the income reaction to increased resource scarcity and (ii) the fertility … response to income dynamics. If labor and resources are substitutes in production, income and fertility dynamics are self …