Population and the environment: The role of fertility, education and life expectancy

This chapter explores the interplay between population and environmental quality. After reviewing the existing literature, we set up a theoretical framework suitable to analyze two major endogenous forces of demographic change-fertility and life expectancy-and their dynamic interaction with human capital and environmental conditions. We thus revisit and encompass in a unified model some key results of the literature, and gain new insight on the consequences of policy intervention on environmental dynamics and economic development. In particular, we highlight (1) the possible perverse effects of pollution control, (2) a demographic explanation of the environmental Kuznets curve, (3) the opportunity of relying on educational subsidies to alleviate the pressure on natural resources, and (4) the existence of poverty traps related to human capital and environmental quality.