Liu Xiying Discusses the Effectiveness of Malthusian Economic Stagnation in the Journal Theoretical Economics

Recently, Liu Xiying, a distinguished researcher of the School of Economics and Management, jointly published the paper "Malthusian stagnation is effective" in the first-class international journalTheoretical Economics.

Focusing on the phenomenon of "Malthusian economic stagnation" that existed for a long time before the Industrial Revolution, this paper, for the first time, was based on the theoretical model of endogenous fertility rate under the framework of modern economic growth, it takes into account the individual heterogeneity in endowment, preferences, etc., establishes an analytical framework for optimal population selection and relevant economic decision-making choices under limited resources, and examines the optimal population and economic resource allocation under limited resources from the perspective of social optimization. The paper finds that economic stagnation, differentiated fertility, a large number of poor people, and consumption inequality are the social optimal (P-effective) under the restriction of limited resources, and technological progress leads to more rather than richer long-term population levels. This kind of economic stagnation is the best choice to balance quantity and quality. "Malthusian economic stagnation" is a subject of wide concern in the field of economic growth, but the effectiveness of this phenomenon has not been well understood. Understanding the effectiveness issue is crucial for policy evaluation and measuring the extent to which modern society can avoid Malthusian economic stagnation in the face of limited resources. This paper provides a comprehensive and scientific theoretical explanation, and fills the gap in the literature in the field of optimal discussion on population and economic development in Malthusian period.

This paper is part of the achievements of the Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China "Macroeconomic Analysis of China's Fertility and Population Policy - Based on Barro Becker and Ben forth Model" (project No. 71703117), which is chaired by Liu Xiying. The paper was jointly completed by Liu Xiying and Juan Carlos Cordoba from the Iowa State University in the United States.

Liu Xiying, a teacher in the Department of Mathematical Economics and Mathematical Finance of the School of Economics and Management of Wuhan University, was graduated from Iowa State University in 2015 with a doctor's degree. She has been committed to studying population transformation and optimal population policies in the process of economic growth and development for a long time, and many of her achievements have been published in first-class journals at home and abroad, includingJournal of Monetary Economics, Theoretical Economics, andJournal of Demographic Economics.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.3982/TE3542