The Malthusian Trap According to Gregory Clark and George Grantham Essay

Clark Vs. GranthamThe Malthusian trap is when income per person remains unchanged because advances in technology resulted only in the population increasing. In the Malthusian trap, birth rate is directly related to living standards, death rate is inversely related to living standards, and living standards are inversely related to the populationtrapping society and preventing long-run improvement. Economic historian, Gregory Clark, contends that pre-1800s Europe was constrained by the Malthusian trap. However, historian George Grantham claims that the main reason for Europes lack of progress was because of their lack of market incentives and proper governance. People were not utilizing their full potential because they lacked the motivation and reason to.George Grantham makes solid points regarding productivity and incentives. Grantham points out that the amount of labor required for a family to feed itself was much less than the available labor time. This tells us that Europeans pre-1800s had plenty of time to do other things such as picking weeds, returning nitrogen to the ground. Grantham also found that because European crowns were not allowed to monopolize trade that they very much relied on mercantile trading. This trading system included regular laborers. As a result, productivity increased because farmers found that they could work harder and yield more crops and sell the excess product in the market system. Europes improvement in government and market incentives naturally encouraged people to work harder because then it involved benefits for themselves.ReferencesGeorge Grantham. The Manse, the Manor, and the Market New Perspectives on the Medieval Agricultural Revolution. Memo, McGill University, 1992.Gregory Clark. A Farewell to Alms NJ Princess University Press, 2007, pp. 1-50....

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