Natural Checks
Natural Checks - Related Videos
01:27
Nature of Costs in the Long Run
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2024
In the short run, costs can be classified into fixed or variable categories. Variable costs fluctuate with the level of production or service activity, and these could include the salaries of hourly workers and raw material costs. The quantity of these inputs must increase to supply a greater quantity of services, making them the source of short-run variable costs. In contrast, fixed costs are those that do not change with the level of output. For example, the contractual commitments related to...
01:11
The Natural Rate of Unemployment
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2025
The natural rate of unemployment is a hypothetical rate and is often denoted by u*. However, it is not directly observable. Economists use several approaches and different assumptions to explain it. For example, some economists take a statistical approach covering data for over a hundred years.One such approach was developed by Robert E. Hall. He assumed a fixed labor force, which means the sum of the number of employed and unemployed people remains constant. His model is based on the idea that...
01:23
Wheels of Growth: Natural and Human Resources
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2025
The foundation of a country’s economic development often begins with its resource base, yet not all resources contribute equally to sustained growth. Two critical categories—natural resources and human resources—play distinct and sometimes complementary roles in shaping economic trajectories.Finite Resources and Economic VolatilityNatural resources, including fossil fuels, metals, arable land, and timber, can provide an immediate boost to national income. Countries with abundant reserves often...
FAQs
When mortality rises after shortages, population pressure can ease because fewer people remain dependent on limited resources. A smaller labor supply may alter the relationship between workers, available subsistence, and wages. This makes mortality an economic adjustment mechanism, not only a demographic event, linking changes in population conditions to employment prospects and living standards.
Productivity gains can increase the amount of food and resources available to support a population under prevailing living conditions. By expanding the subsistence base, they may reduce the immediate pressure associated with population growth. Their significance lies in changing the conditions under which mortality, labor supply, wages, and long-run economic growth interact.
The effects depend on the relationship between population size and available resources for subsistence. When population expands faster than that resource base, shortages can intensify pressure on living conditions and contribute to higher mortality. When resources or productivity improve, the same population increase may place less strain on subsistence and economic performance.
Natural checks connect demographic change with growth by showing how population pressure can influence mortality, labor supply, wages, and resource use. If living conditions fail to keep pace with population expansion, mortality may interrupt demographic growth. Studying this relationship helps explain why population change does not automatically produce sustained improvements in macroeconomic performance.
Economists can examine whether periods of population expansion were followed by worsening shortages, disease, famine, or conflict and then by increased mortality. This comparison helps identify recurring relationships between demographic pressure and living conditions. The approach is useful for interpreting historical population cycles without treating population change as separate from resource availability or economic conditions.
An analysis should consider population growth alongside food and resource availability, mortality, labor supply, wages, productivity, and living standards. These factors show whether demographic pressure is exceeding the prevailing subsistence base or whether improved productivity is easing that pressure. Together, they provide a framework for relating demographic conditions to broader macroeconomic outcomes.