In 1992, a summer course 'Demographic Perspectives on Living Arrangements' as well as a one-day workshop 'Recent Issues in Household Modelling' were held in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. This volume is based on the lectures delivered during the summer course, as well as on the presentations made in the workshop. As such, the present volume combines the two elements of transfer of knowledge, on the one hand, and updating the state-of-the-art in the field of household demography, especially in household modelling, on the other hand. In organizing the contents and structure of this volume, we have aimed at creating a book that covers the field of household demography and household modelling in a certain logical and comprehensive way. The purpose of this book is to offer a comprehensive treatment of recent developments in various aspects of the growing field of household demography. Since these recent developments have particularly occurred in household analysis and modelling, these topics will receive special emphasis. The book was written for demographers, social scientists, and planners who are involved in the study and projection of popUlation in general, and of households in particular.

Since 1987, the investigation of the relationship between female labour market behaviour and fertility, which forms part of the research programme of the Economic Institute / Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Labour Market and Distribution Issues (CIAV) of Utrecht University, also became a part of the research programme of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). Since then, I have been entrusted with research on this topic. In this context, I acted on a suggestion made by Frans Willekens to organize an international workshop, with the help of other members of the NIDI staff and with the administrative and organizational support of the NIDI. This resulted in the workshop "Female Labour Market Behaviour and Fertility: Preferences, Restrictions, Behaviour," held at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute in The Hague, April 20-22, 1989, under the auspices of the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS). In this workshop, demographers, econometricians, economists, psychologists and socio logists discussed the paths to a truly interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between female labour market behaviour and fertility. Such an interdisciplinary approach requires a common theoretical framework. The rational-choice framework was considered to be best suited to this purpose. As a consequence, the workshop was not only structured by what was studied, but also by how it was studied. This volume consists of the papers presented at the above-mentioned workshop, as revised by the authors in collaboration with the editors."

In 1992, a summer course 'Demographic Perspectives on Living Arrangements' as well as a one-day workshop 'Recent Issues in Household Modelling' were held in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. This volume is based on the lectures delivered during the summer course, as well as on the presentations made in the workshop. As such, the present volume combines the two elements of transfer of knowledge, on the one hand, and updating the state-of-the-art in the field of household demography, especially in household modelling, on the other hand. In organizing the contents and structure of this volume, we have aimed at creating a book that covers the field of household demography and household modelling in a certain logical and comprehensive way. The purpose of this book is to offer a comprehensive treatment of recent developments in various aspects of the growing field of household demography. Since these recent developments have particularly occurred in household analysis and modelling, these topics will receive special emphasis. The book was written for demographers, social scientists, and planners who are involved in the study and projection of popUlation in general, and of households in particular.

This book studies optimal economic growth in a closed economy which experiences non-stable population growth. The economy is described by means of a neoclassical growth model which distinguishes overlapping generations within the population. The basic neoclassical growth model is extended to include various types of technical change, as well as investment in human capital or education. The research described in this book connects the analytical tools of traditional growth theory with the actual demographic experience of most industrialized countries. The role of demographic processes in the growth theoretical literature is discussed in the next section. The discussion will show that growth theory needs to extend its scope through the construction of growth models which explicitly recognize demographic forces as a potential source of non-stationarities. This book constitutes a first attempt at such a demographic extension. 1.1 Growth theory and demographic change The theory of economic growth (e.g. Solow, 1970; Burmeister & Dobell, 1970; Wan, 1971) attempts to describe and to explain the long-run development of an economic system (or, in short, economy). An economic system is essentially dynamic in nature. Among the most important sources of dynamics in economics are the following: accumulation of capital (investment); technical change; population growth. Some of these dynamic forces are, at least in part, endogenous to the economic system (i.e. determined by economic variables).