Population and Welfare: Measuring Growth when Life is Worth Living

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The paper asks how much economic progress looks different when one applies a total utilitarian welfare criterion — counting every person’s flow utility — rather than the standard per-capita consumption measure. The motivation is both philosophical and practical: philosophers have long debated whether the number of people matters for social welfare alongside average living standards, yet growth economists have almost exclusively used the per-capita approach. The authors do not adjudicate the debate; they quantify its stakes across a broad cross-country sample.

Charles I. Jones | Macro Paper Warehouse

Population and Welfare: Measuring Growth when Life is Worth Living