Examining the impact of natural resource scarcity and poverty on population growth in Honduras, Nepal, and Tanzania

Ayoub S Ayoub, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This study presents an empirical analysis of the impact of natural resource scarcity and poverty on population growth via fertility in Honduras, Nepal, and Tanzania. The study applies the vicious circle argument. According to the argument natural resource scarcity coupled with poverty leads to population growth in rural areas of developing countries. The argument challenges the existing studies that largely focused on examining the impact of population growth on natural resource. This study uses recent household data from the Demographic and Health Surveys. Unlike previous studies, this study tests for and addresses the potential problem of natural resource scarcity endogeneity. The results provide support of the vicious circle argument by showing that natural resource scarcity as measured by the time taken to get to the source of drinking water and poverty measured by wealth index lead to increases in fertility for two out of the three countries examined