Scaling in Human Societies

There are, broadly speaking, two hypotheses on the relationship between population and economic growth, as explained in Sibe, Chiatchoua, and Megna (2016). The Malthusian view, named for Thomas Malthus and his famous essay on population (Malthus (1798)), holds that population growth tends to depress per-capita GDP. The Kremerian view, named... [Read More]

It is well-known that, historically, the availability of energy is highly related to economic growth in the long run. It is less clear whether this relationship should be expected to continue into the future, and it is also unclear whether energy causes economic growth, or whether growth causes increased energy... [Read More]

It is well-known that, historically, the availability of energy is highly related to economic growth in the long run. It is less clear whether this relationship should be expected to continue into the future, and it is also unclear whether energy causes economic growth, or whether growth causes increased energy... [Read More]

Large cities tend to facilitate more social interaction, which includes negative interactions such as crime. [Read More]

In this article, we consider theoretical limits to human population. Binder et al. (2020) observe that an estimate of the world’s “carrying capacity” generally finds a single limiting factor to growth. That limiting factor might be the world’s photosynthetic capacity, the problem of waste heat disposal, or something else. Estimates... [Read More]