The New World removed Malthusian constraints, which, until then, had meant that higher population growth could be achieved only at the expense of lower living standards.

ECONOMIST: World trade

In the 1980s the link was downplayed in reaction to Malthusian alarms of the 1970s, when it was fashionable to argue that population growth had to be reined in because oil and natural resources were running short.

ECONOMIST: Lower fertility is changing the world for the better