Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202607 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2019-1
Publisher: 
Brown University, Department of Economics, Providence, RI
Abstract: 
This research presents the first evidence that moderate fecundity had maximized long-run reproductive success in the human population. Using a reconstructed genealogy for nearly half a million individuals in Quebec during the 1608-1800 period, we find that while a high fecundity was associated with a larger number of children, perhaps paradoxically, a moderate fecundity had maximized the number of descendants after several generations. Moreover, the finding suggests that the level of fecundity that maximized long-run reproductive success was above the population average, indicating that natural selection had decreased the level of fecundity in the population over this period. This evolutionary process may have contributed to the onset of the demographic transition and thus to the evolution of societies to an era of sustained economic growth.
Subjects: 
Demography
Evolution
Human Capital Formation
Natural Selection
Fecundity
Quantity-Quality Trade-Off
Long-Run Reproductive Success
Economic Growth
JEL: 
J10
N30
O10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
635.89 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.