RT Generic
T1 Malthusian pressures : empirical evidence from a frontier economy
A1 Geloso,Vincent
A1 Kufenko,Vadim
WP 2015/03/05
AB In this paper we study Malthusian pressures in a frontier economy. Using
the empirical data on the real prices and demographic variables from 1688
to 1860 for Quebec and Montreal, we test for the existence of Malthusian
pressures. Bearing in mind the particularities of frontier economies and the
development of the Canadian economy, we conduct cointegration tests and
VARs in order to identify positive and preventive checks. The cointegration
test reveals absence of long-run equilibrium relationship between real wheat
prices, birth and death rates. Using the Bai-Perron test we find a structural
break in 1767 and divide the sample in pre- and post-conquest periods. We
find that the positive checks were operating in the years prior to the conquest
but that they faded during the nineteenth century. In the short-run,
we find that wheat prices Granger-cause fluctuations in death rates in the
pre-conquest period.
K1 Malthusianismus
K1 Kanada
PP Hohenheim
PB Kommunikations-, Informations- und Medienzentrum der Universität Hohenheim
UL http://opus.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2015/1056