The natural environment and optimal population growth

This paper investigates the optimal growth of a population when resources conserved for recreation (or the natural environment) enter the social welfare function. If the CES welfare function and the Cobb-Douglass production function are assumed, the growth rate of a population should be determined as a weighted average of the growth rates of per capita income and of conserved resources per capita. In the long run, there should be a limit to the growth of a population. Examples of numerical solutions for optimal time paths of a population are also presented.