Is Population Growth Beneficial or Detrimental to Economic Development? A New Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

In recent decades, new forms of Malthusian idea of the limited food supply and scarce resources have surfaced. The notion of the ‘peak oil’ in the 1970s and the warnings of an impending ‘food crisis’ in recent years
have generated intense debates among economists and policy makers. Worries have been expressed about the ability of the world economy to sustain the ever expanding world population. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence to the on-going debate about the influence of population growth on economic growth. It chooses Pakistan as a case study and analyses the relationship between population growth and economic development in the country. The findings of this study indicate the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between economic
performance and population growth in Pakistan. Also, the results of this study’s statistical analyses indicate the existence of a unidirectional causality from population growth to economic development in Pakistan. In short, the findings reveal that the population growth in Pakistan has a positive impact on economic development. This provides additional empirical support to the population-driven economic growth proposition, which is the most important outcome of this study.