ENDOGENOUS POPULATION GROWTH IN AN OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS MODEL WITH INTERNATIONAL LENDING AND BORROWING*

In this paper population growth is the outcome of a utility maximizing process undertaken by each working generation. This is distinct from the usual treatment of population growth as an exogenous variable. Steady state growth paths are analysed, and the model is extended to allow for international lending and borrowing. The results obtained broadly correspond to the case of a given rate of increase of population, but under certain assumptions it is found that a capital importing country will have a faster rate of growth as a result of being able to borrow on international capital markets.     

Factor Endowments and the Private Provision of Public Goods

The paper examines the consequences of increasing the size of the community in the standard model of the private provision of public goods when costs are variable. In contrast to an economy with fixed costs, the provision of the public good can fall with a larger community, and an increased provision of the public good is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for individual utility to rise. The paper also contributes to the literature on immiserizing growth in that it shows that capital accumulation can possibly result in lower utility for all individuals.     

PARCHING THE LAND?: THE CHETTIARS IN BURMA

In the history of Burma's economy, few groups have been as vilified as the Chettiars. A community of Indian moneylenders, the Chettiars were crucial agents in transforming Burma into the rice bowl of Asia. Following the global depression of the 1930s, Burmese agriculture became severely distressed and wide-scale loan default saw the transfer of much of Burma's cultivatable land to the Chettiars, who were demonised and made scapegoats for the vices of colonialism. The paper draws on the 'information-theoretic revolution' in economics to reappraise the role of the Chettiars in Burma. We conclude the Chettiars merit history's better judgement.