ON POPULATION-GROWTH AND REVISIONISM - FURTHER QUESTIONS

Contradicting alarmist accounts, the ''revisionist'' view of the effec ts of rapid population growth is that on balance such growth is a fair ly neutral factor in economic development. The arguments supporting th is view encapsulate much of what modern economics has to say on the to pic, as contained in the research summarized in the 1986 US National A cademy of Sciences report, Population Growth and Economic Development: Policy Questions, and in a number of studies undertaken subsequently. Yet these conclusions remain controversial. This essay probes the sou rces of that controversy by asking a series of questions beyond those addressed by the 1986 report. The questions concern the scope of appli cation of the mainline arguments and approaches, potentially relevant issues that have been sidelined, and the framing of the population-gro wth debate. The resulting discussion points to significant aspects of the population problem that appear to elude economic analysis. The com parisons it calls for are among possible worlds rather than among inco me differences that a few years' growth could offset.