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(→‎Malthusianism: Macroeconomics)
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== '''[[Malthusianism]]''' ==
== '''[[Macroeconomics]]''' ==
----'''Malthusianism''' is a theory in [[demography]] regarding population growth. It holds that population expands faster than food supplies. Famine will result unless steps are taken to reduce population growth.  
----
===Pre-Malthus notions===
'''Macroeconomics''' is the study of the national [[economy]] viewed as a single interactive system. It is concerned, not with individual transactions,  but with economy-wide aggregates, including national income, the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate. At the theoretical level it  seeks  to explain how national income grows, how it fluctuates and what then happens to prices and unemployment. At the positive level it tests competing theories against the evidence provided by economic statistics, and it estimates the numerical relationships required to construct forecasting models. At the application level it considers what policies would serve to promote economic stability and growth and full employment.
Over the centuries many theorists have considered one or another aspect of population, usually to promote the policy of more people (“pronatalist.”) The early Christian tradition, however, was “antinatalist”, with the highest prestige going to priests, monks and nuns who were celibate.  


In the 17th and 18th century the general belief, called "[[mercantilism]]" was that the larger the population the better for the nation.  Larger population meant more farmers and more foodmore people in church (and more prayers), and larger, more powerful armies for deterrence, defense and expansion. People equaled power. As [[Frederick the Great]] of Prussia put it, "The number of the people makes the wealth of states." The policy implications were clear: the state should help raise population through annexation of territory and pronatalist subsidies that encourage large families. After 1800, a rising spirit of nationalism called out for more people  to make a bigger and more powerful nation.
Since a national economy is too complex to analyse for those purposes, macroeconomics uses  simplified versions which ignore those  components  that are thought to have relatively little influence upon the question under consideration.  The initial  procedure  postulates the way that the components of the system interact and deduces from those postulated relationshipshow the system as a whole may be expected to behaveThat deductive process is normally followed by the use of evidence and inductive reasoning to  test, either the relationships themselves, or the deduced behaviour of the system.


''[[Malthusianism|.... (read more)]]''
''[[Macroeconomics|.... (read more)]]''


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Revision as of 02:12, 2 March 2013

Macroeconomics


Macroeconomics is the study of the national economy viewed as a single interactive system. It is concerned, not with individual transactions, but with economy-wide aggregates, including national income, the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate. At the theoretical level it seeks to explain how national income grows, how it fluctuates and what then happens to prices and unemployment. At the positive level it tests competing theories against the evidence provided by economic statistics, and it estimates the numerical relationships required to construct forecasting models. At the application level it considers what policies would serve to promote economic stability and growth and full employment.

Since a national economy is too complex to analyse for those purposes, macroeconomics uses simplified versions which ignore those components that are thought to have relatively little influence upon the question under consideration. The initial procedure postulates the way that the components of the system interact and deduces from those postulated relationships, how the system as a whole may be expected to behave. That deductive process is normally followed by the use of evidence and inductive reasoning to test, either the relationships themselves, or the deduced behaviour of the system.

.... (read more)