The High Value of Human Time: Population Equilibrium.

The paper focuses on the high value of human time. It deals with two widely different population equilibrium concepts. It extends the explanation of the secular increases in the value of human time. It takes a critical look at the usefulness of the household model in analyzing fertility in countries characterized by high birth and death rates and by substantial increases in national income in a context where the level of the economic value of human time is very low and not increasing much. The idea of a population equilibrium is viewed strictly as an analytical concept to guide economic thinking in deriving testable propositions pertaining to fertility. Two very different concepts of a population equilibrium are formulated. The first concept, as it was envisaged by the early English economists, has long been a standard part of economics. It assumes that the supply of land is fixed and that diminishing returns gradually increase the price of food as a consequence of population growth. The foundation of the second concept is the high price of human time relative to the price of the services of material factors and goods.