ABSTRACT
In earlier chapters of this volume (Chapters IV to VIII) we have discussed simple models of a growing economy in which the growth rate of the working population was assumed to be given and constant and unaffected by economic considerations such as the standard of living—even though in an extreme case (cf. p. 83 above) the workers’ standard of living might fall to zero. In these models we considered how the growth rate of the working population might affect the standard of living. In the last chapter (Chapter X) we have explained how, with given specific mortality and fertility rates, the population would tend towards a state in which (i) there was a constant age and sex distribution and thus a constant dependency ratio and (ii) there was a constant growth rate of the total population and of the working population. It is now necessary to close the circle by considering how changes in the standard of living, through their effect upon specific mortality and fertility rates, may affect the dependency ratio and the growth rate of the population and so—by the mechanisms discussed in Chapters IV to VIII—may in turn feed back and affect the standard of living itself.
