Mathematical investigations of the escape from the Malthusian trap

We present a simulation model that synthesizes Malthusian and Boserupian notions of the way population growth and economic development were intertwined. The non‐linear stochastic model consists of a system of equations whose dynamics culminate in an industrial revolution after hundreds of iterations. The Industrial Revolution can thus be conceptualized as a permanent “escape”; from the Malthusian trap that occurs once the economy is capable of permanently sustaining an ever growing population. We investigate the conditions for such an escape and their sensitivity to the parameters of the model. This is done in an attempt to understand why some economies might have had difficulties escaping from the Malthusian trap (in contrast to the European experience in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). Our results show that the likelihood of an escape is sensitive to the savings rate and to the output elasticities of the two sectors of the economy. When not in a subsistence crisis, the chances that an escape will occur increase for larger values of the ratio of the savings rate to the growth rate of the population. The chances of an escape also increase substantially for larger values of the output elasticities of labor.