Economic History: Pre-industrial economies and the Malthusian trap — The Malthusian Model
How the Malthusian model explains why living standards stayed near subsistence for millennia, and what finally broke the trap.
Try 3 questions
1. According to Malthus, how do population and food supply tend to grow?
- Population geometrically, food arithmetically
- Both at the same steady rate
- Food geometrically, population arithmetically
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Answer: Population geometrically, food arithmetically
Population can multiply (2, 4, 8, 16) while farm output, limited by land, only adds (1, 2, 3, 4), so people eventually outrun food.
2. In the Malthusian model, what does a lasting improvement in farming lead to in the long run?
- Permanently higher income per person
- More people at the same living standard
- A smaller and wealthier population
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Answer: More people at the same living standard
Extra food first raises incomes, which boosts births and cuts deaths until population grows enough to push income back to its old level.
3. What were Malthus's "positive checks" on population?
- Later marriage that lowers births
- Famine, disease and war raising deaths
- Trade that brings in foreign food
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Answer: Famine, disease and war raising deaths
Positive checks raise the death rate; Malthus called birth-reducing behavior such as delayed marriage "preventive checks."
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