ABSTRACT
While the boundaries to this watershed are difficult to locate the Classical economists have always figured prominently therein. Few elements of the Classical literature can have gained more attention than the Malthus-Ricardo debate over the measure, causes, and nature of economic growth. Malthus’ thoughts on the interaction between economic and demographic growth have of course also provided considerable stimulus to economists and demographers well outside of the post-Keynesian tradition. This chapter develops a non-linear dynamic model of economic and demographic growth which aims to embody the most essential elements of Malthus’s policy-oriented analysis of advanced economies. The model and its results are then compared with a very simple model of Ricardian growth so as to contrast their approaches to economic dynamics, and identify the basis of their competing policy prescriptions. While it is not within the scope of this paper to trace the later fate of these arguments, it will be clear to many readers that they came to trouble and involve not only Geoff Harcourt, but almost all of the twentieth-century growth theorists who have figured prominently in his writings.
