Population Growth and Economic Development: New Empirical Evidence from Thailand

Population growth has a substantial impact on economic development. There are two schools of thought regarding this issue. Some researchers maintain that population has a negative impact on economic development while others are convinced that the effect is positive. This paper aims to provide additional evidence by employing the bounds test (Pesaran et al., 2001) to analyse a long-run relationship between population growth and economic development in Thailand. The findings of this study indicate the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between population growth and economic development in Thailand. Also, the findings show that there exists a unidirectional causality from population growth to economic development in Thailand. This means that population growth in Thailand has a positive impact on the country's economic performance. These findings support the population-driven economic growth hypothesis which states that population growth promotes economic development.