Abstract
Demographic transition theory is developed highlighting cultural transmission pattern as a key driver. Individuals maximize cultural fitness, i.e. the rate of own cultural type absorption by future generations. With low population density, one’s culture can be picked up only by own children, and so cultural fitness equals genetic fitness, individuals allocate all energy surplus to reproduction, and the Malthusian regime occurs. With rising population density, cultural transmission between non-relatives accelerates; knowledge production by an individual makes his culture more attractive. Individuals reallocate some of energy surplus from reproduction to knowledge production, causing technological growth. The model fits observed demographic transition patterns.
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Notes
The socioeconomic conditions such as women’s wage or old age security, which are typically cited by economists as key drivers of fertility, began to change several years after Eastern European fertility began to decline. Moreover, the socioeconomic change was in opposite direction from what was needed to reduce fertility according to typical economic theories of demographic transition.
There is no geography in the model, hence all individuals are equally likely to be sampled as potential role models.
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The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) supported within the framework of a subsidy granted to the HSE by the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Global Competitiveness Program.
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Zakharenko, R. Endogenous growth and demographic transition in a model of cultural transmission. J Evol Econ 26, 953–970 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-016-0474-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-016-0474-4