Leeza Coppock
9/23/14
SOC 370
Midterm 1
GRADE: 18/20

1. Describe the potential relationship between population growth and economic development. What are the competing perspectives? Which do you think is most useful, and why? 5 points

Chapter three focuses on the relationship between population growth and economic development. Livi-Bacci provides potential relationships between the two by focusing on certain theories. This chapter opens up with the two competing perspectives of these potential relationships.
The first is seeing population growth as a negative force, putting pressure on fixed or limited resources, eventually leading to an increase in poverty. Malthus backs up this negative relationship perspective with the law of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns will occur when population growth increases and, in a fixed environment, a point is reached, causing the output to diminish gradually. Diminishing returns will cause for poverty, while the fixed, limited resources will level off. Malthus argues that population growth is determined by the growth of the economy. The Malthusian model demonstrates population checks, keeping the fate of the population in the hands of …show more content…
Before agriculture, population of the human species was around 6 million. After the introduction of agricultural farming, population grew to about 250 million (35). A growth in population led to humans splitting off from groups, forming new ones. Groups that became too dense were prone to less stability. New settlements provided more space for living and farming, promoting population growth even more. Agricultural technology allowed for constrains on farming to be removed, producing more crops for a bigger population size. This was one of the biggest shifts in human population history because subsistence farming became a thing of the past. ??? It became a thing of the