期刊名称：CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度：2002
卷号：2002
出版社：Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要：We explore the hypothesis that demographic changes started in the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries are at the root of the acceleration in growth rates
at the dawn of the modern age. During this period, life tables for Geneva and
Venice show a decline in adult mortality; French marriage registers show an
important increase in literacy; historians measure an acceleration of economic
growth. We develop an endogenous growth model with a realistic survival law
in which rising longevity increases the individual incentive to invest in education
and foster growth. We quantitatively estimate that the observed improvements
in adultmortality account for 70% of the growth acceleration in the pre-industrial
age
