THE DEMOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF INCOME REDISTRIBUTION AND ACCELERATED ECONOMIC GROWTH REVISITED

This paper reexamines C. R. Winegarden's (1984) findings regarding the demographic implications of economic growth, redistribution of incomes, and family planning. His estimates are found to be highly sensitive to minor changes in the classification of countries with respect to family-planning programs. When Winegarden's binary variable is replaced by a superior qualitative index, and the model re-estimated using a more appropriate econometric method, substantially different results emerge. These suggest that the rate of economic growth has no discernible impact on natality in the third world and that any concern over the possible harmful demographic consequences of greater equality of incomes is unwarranted. Copyright 1988 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd