Demographic Pressure And The Irish Famine: Malthus After Mo

The experience of Ireland in the century before the Great Famine that began in 1845 superficially supports Malthus' (1798) hypothesis that income per capita will decrease as population increases. Mokyr (1985) claimed, however, that the statistical evidence from Ireland during that period does not support the Malthusian hypothesis. Mokyr claimed that land was not a binding constraint on the contemporary Irish economy. A reanalysis of demographic pressure in pre-Famine Ireland provides support for the Malthusian hypothesis. The new analysis takes into proper account the measurement of land quality and demographic pressure and shows that the thrust of the rural economy during that time was westward and southward, where there were poorer but warmer soils. It was in this area of Ireland that demographic pressure was greatest. The most visible expression of the land constraint upon the economy there was the building of hovels up mountainsides.