Population Growth and Natural‐Resource Scarcity: Long‐Run Development under Seemingly Unfavorable Conditions |
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Authors: | Lucas Bretschger |
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Affiliation: | Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich (CER‐ETH), , CH‐8092 Zurich, SwitzerlandThe author thanks Karen Pittel, Simone Valente, Alexandra Vinogradova, Cees Withagen, and, in particular, two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. |
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Abstract: | In this paper, I consider an economy that is constrained by the use of natural resources and driven by knowledge accumulation. Resources are essential inputs in all sectors. I show that population growth and poor input substitution are not detrimental but, on the contrary, are even necessary to obtain a sustainable consumption level. I find a general rule to define the conditions for a constant innovation rate. The rule does not apply to capital but to labor growth, which is the crucial input in research. Furthermore, the rule relates to the sectoral structure of the economy, and to demographic transition. The results continue to hold with a backstop technology, and are extended for the case of minimum resource constraints. |
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Keywords: | Non‐renewable resources poor input substitution population growth sustainability technical change E10 O30 O41 Q32 Q56 |
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