Latest Articles from Population and Economics Latest 2 Articles from Population and Economics https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/ Fri, 29 Mar 2024 07:57:32 +0200 Pensoft FeedCreator https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/i/logo.jpg Latest Articles from Population and Economics https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/ Male fertility in the 19th century: the case of the Moscow merchant class https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/article/91138/ Population and Economics 6(2): 144-152

DOI: 10.3897/popecon.6.e91138

Authors: Irina A. Troitskaya, Alexandre A. Avdeev

Abstract: The article presents estimates of male fertility among the Moscow merchants in 1850-1858: it assesses the impact of specific marital behavior of male merchants on fertility rates, defines the limits of the male reproductive age, and considers the contribution of infant and child mortality to the formation of family structure. Skazki (household lists) of the 10th revision of the Moscow merchants served the data source. The analysis showed that late marriage with low definitive celibacy of the Moscow male merchants and a significant age difference between spouses is combined with relatively high rates of male fertility at the age of over 50. The total fertility rate for the period under study exceeds five children per man.

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Research Note Thu, 8 Sep 2022 17:46:52 +0300
Patterns of population decline following European contact and colonization: The cases of Tahiti and the Marquesas https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/article/81900/ Population and Economics 6(2): 88-107

DOI: 10.3897/popecon.6.e81900

Authors: Jean-Louis Rallu

Abstract: Recent archaeological data assess that Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands were densely populated at contact with the Europeans and then experienced a tremendous decline. This phenomenon is most often attributed to epidemics, while a steady negative increase is rarely mentioned. This paper shows that the population of Tahiti was most probably around 110,000 – or even reached 180,000 – at contact, based on a retrodiction from the 1881 census using data on epidemic mortality and annual decline rates observed in the second half of the nineteenth century in Tahiti, the Marquesas, and other Eastern Polynesian islands in similar situations, according to missionary, administrative, and medical reports. Our ‘model’, or reconstitution, provides estimates on the impact of both types of mortality. Due to no exposure to childhood and other diseases common on the continents, the Polynesians had low immunity, as shown by age-specific death rates until the 1918 flu and the 1951 measles epidemics. Following the European contact, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), tuberculosis (TB), and other introduced infectious diseases resulted in a steady population decline due to reduced birth rates and very high death rates. Health services were available for the Europeans soon after the takeover, however the natives got access to health services much later with their sporadic and fragmental provision. The constant negative increase extended far beyond the colonial period, including after effective drugs were discovered in the 1880s, becoming the main contributor to the overall demographic decline in the Marquesas, where health services were missing most of the time before 1924, mostly in the South-Eastern group.

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Research Article Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:03:08 +0300