Economics and Population Change

Watching population change, it may be said, is akin to watching paint dry. It is noticeable almost only in times of national upheaval such as wars or epidemics. Usually, it is a phenomenon of which we gain awareness only over long time periods. The economics profession, for its part, habitually looks at change from the opposite end of the telescope; that which is happening in the nearby to intermediate future, perhaps a quarter or maybe a year ahead. The practice of economic forecasting, therefore, has been almost completely divorced from that needed to consider the economics of population change.