FERTILITY, INCOME-DISTRIBUTION, AND ECONOMIC-GROWTH - THEORY AND CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE

The theoretical analysis demonstrates that due to borrowing constraint s countries with smaller average family size and with more equal distr ibution of income attain higher per-worker (per-capita) output, The em pirical analysis shows that the combined effect of fertility and incom e distribution is substantial in explaining per-worker (per-capita) ou tput and growth performance across countries. In particular, the negat ive effect of the labor force (or population) growth rate on economic growth, suggested by the neoclassical growth model, is shown to be ins ignificant, whereas that of the family size as suggested by the curren t paper is shown to be significant.