Question

1. Which of following is incorrect about the history of human population growth?

1. In the Modern growth era, both population and income per capita grow very fast.
2. In the Malthusian era, growth rates of both population and income per capita are close to zero.
3. In the Modern growth era, population growth slows down and income per capita grows fast.
4. In the post-Malthusian era, both population and income per capita grow at a higher rate compared with the Malthusian era.

2. According to the theory of Galor and Weil (2000), which of the following is the key driving force of demographic transition?

1. Structural transformation that increases the share of land in output
2. Government policy that encourages family planning
3. The positive feedback between population growth and technology growth
4. A one-time positive productivity shock.

3. Which of the following statements is incorrect about the nonrenewable natural resources?

1. The price of natural resources has an upward trend over time.
2. Technological progress is responsible for the declines in pollution and leveling off of energy use over time.
3. Depletion of natural resources have a negative impact on economic growth.
4. Pollution levels and income per capita have an inverse U-shaped relationship.

4. While the relative supply of college graduates has increased substantially in developed countries in the past few decades, the college premium (i.e., the college/high-school wage ratio) has also increased. Which of the following best explains the increases in both supply and price of skills?

1. An increase in the supply of skills raises the demand for skills directly
2. College students learn more from school today than in the past, and hence new generations of college graduates are more productive at work than the old ones.
3. Directed technical change: more skill-complementary technology is invented when the supply of skills is larger, increasing demand for skills subsequently.
4. New technology substitutes skills.

Answer 1

B. In the Malthusian era, growth rates of both population and income per capita are close to zero.

Malthusianism is the idea that population growth is potwntially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear.

C. The positive feedback between population growth and technology growth.

Two forces drives the transition between regimes, technological progress is driven by increase in the size of the population and by increases in the average level of education. Secondly, technological progress creates a state of disequilibrium, which raises the return to human capital and induces parents to substitute child quality for quantity.

B. Technological progress is responsible for the declines in pollution and leveling off of energy use over time.

Resource depletion is a negative impact of technology on the environment. Deforestation, mining, etc increase pollution levels in the environment.

D. Directed technical change: more skill-complementary technology is invented when the supply of skills is larger, increasing demand for skills subsequently.