Bust
The Economics of Population Decline
Paul Morland author Philip Pilkington author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Polity Press
Publishing:6th Nov '26
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 6th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
We are entering an era of population decline across the developed world (and beyond). Few have given serious thought to what this might mean economically. Will an ageing society and dwindling population be easily accommodated or strike at the very heart of our prosperity?
Paul Morland and Philip Pilkington argue that the consequences of the coming demographic upheaval will be economically devastating. All of the assumptions of economists – that a world of above-replacement birth rates and gentle annual population growth could be taken for granted – are being upended. Once economics drove population changes, but now demography is the most fundamental force shaping our economic future. Bust addresses everything from labour and capital markets to housing and the welfare state, showing the profoundly worrying consequences of a shrinking working age population and an ageing society. Unless we take radical action to bolster birth rates, we face a future of falling living standards, high inflation and low growth.
This book shines a penetrating light on one of the most ominous – and least understood – economic and social challenges of the twenty-first century. No-one who reads it will look upon public policy or the future of our society in the same way again.
"Economics once determined demography, now demography is determining economics. So to understand properly the huge implications of fertility collapse on our economies, we need demographers and economists to collaborate. Such a sparkling collaboration is just what this important book provides."
David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere and The Care Dilemma
"Bust is a bracing and important book. Morland and Pilkington sound a necessary alarm: population decline is the defining crisis of our era – and that the only real answer is to rebuild economic and cultural life around the family as society's foundational unit."
Brad Wilcox, Professor of Sociology and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia
"Few people understand the stark consequences of falling global fertility; fewer still understand what is driving this trend. In Bust, Paul Morland and Philip Pilkington explore what factors drive fertility rates – both now and in the past – and what practical steps we can take to encourage more births before it is too late. Bust is an important contribution to the 'birth rate' debate and it should be read by politicians and policymakers who urgently need to understand how demographic decline is driving economic decline and not the other way around."
Miriam Cates, former Conservative MP and journalist
ISBN: 9781509572533
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
234 pages