On the tradeoff between cultural sensitivity and aggregate size in population control policy

Abstract

Recently, Batabyal proposed an unconventional population control policy that is sensitive to the cultural desire for male progeny in many Asian nations. Although the proposed policy is culturally sensitive, a potential problem with this policy is that the aggregate size of the national population that is sought to be controlled may be quite high. Consequently, this note addresses the tradeoff between cultural sensitivity and aggregate population size. Specifically, the study analyses the properties of a modified policy that is desirable not only because it is culturally sensitive but also because it caps the aggregate size of individual families and thereby the size of the national population.

Acknowledgements

Batabyal thanks the Gosnell endowment at RIT for financial support. The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

¹See Sen (1990), Agnihotri et al. (2002), and Klasen and Wink (2002) for additional discussions of this important problem.

²For more on this issue see Bardhan (1982) and Abeykoon (1995).

³ See Batabyal (2003) for more on this point.