Ester Boserup (18 May 1910[1] – 24 September 1999) was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and wrote seminal books on agrarian change and the role of women in development.
Boserup is known for her theory of agricultural intensification, also known as Boserup's theory, which posits that population change drives the intensity of agricultural production. Her position countered the Malthusian theory that agricultural methods determine population via limits on food supply. Her best-known book on this subject, The Conditions of Agricultural Growth, presents a "dynamic analysis embracing all types of primitive agriculture." (Boserup, E. 1965. p 13)[2] A major point of her book is that "necessity is the mother of invention".
Her other major work, Woman's Role in Economic Development, explored the allocation of tasks between men and women, and inaugurated decades of subsequent work connecting issues of gender to those of economic development, pointing out that many economic burdens fell disproportionately on women.[3] In an early review, her book was called "pioneering;" nearly five decades later, it has proved influential, having been cited by thousands of other works.[4]
It was her great belief that humanity would always find a way and was quoted in saying "The power of ingenuity would always outmatch that of demand". She also influenced the debate on women in the workforce and human development, and the possibility of better opportunities of work and education for women.
Her work earned her three honorary doctorate degrees: one from Wageningen University; one from Brown University; and one from the University of Copenhagen. She was also elected to the US National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Associate in 1989.[5] The doctorates were in three different fields: agricultural, economic, and human sciences, respectively; the interdisciplinary nature of her work is reflected in these honors, just as it distinguished her career.[6] Of interdisciplinarity, Boserup said: "Somebody should have the courage not to specialise and to look at how one can bring things together. That is what I have tried to do."[5]
^"Boserup, Ester". Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 August 2014. data sheet. (b. 5-18-10)
^Andrew C. Revkin, "An Ecologist Explains His Contested View of Planetary Limits", The New York Times, 16 September 2013.
^Cite error: The named reference jain was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Dodge, Norton T. (1973) "Women in Economic Development: A Review Essay." International Review of Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 161-166
^ abCite error: The named reference Mathieu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^B. L. Turner II and Marina Fischer-Kowalski (21 December 2010). "Ester Boserup: An interdisciplinary visionary relevant for sustainability". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107 (51): 21963–21965. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10721963T. doi:10.1073/pnas.1013972108. PMC 3009765. PMID 21135227.
EsterBoserup (18 May 1910 – 24 September 1999) was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations...
politician EsterBoserup (1910–1999), Danish economist Julia Boserup (born 1991), American tennis player This page lists people with the surname Boserup. If...
with the environment was sparked largely by EsterBoserup's book Woman's Role in Economic Development. Boserup challenged conventional development theories...
Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in 2010. She was also awarded the EsterBoserup Prize for Development Research in 2016. Sundar obtained a Bachelor of...
advancement in developing countries. A decade later, feminist economist EsterBoserup’s pioneering book Women’s Role in Economic Development (1970) was published...
theory could explain this effect. The theory was originally proposed by EsterBoserup and suggests that agriculture advances only as the population demands...
and emotion in explaining economic phenomena. Many scholars including EsterBoserup, Marianne Ferber, Drucilla K. Barker, Julie A. Nelson, Marilyn Waring...
creating (and defining) The Mothers of Invention. Danish economist EsterBoserup believed "necessity is the mother of invention" and this was a major...
particularly political scientist Elinor Ostrom, or economists Amartya Sen and EsterBoserup. Even though much of mainstream journalism considers Malthusianism the...
of one 2014 study attributed these findings to widespread polygyny. EsterBoserup was the first to propose that the high incidence of polygyny in sub-Saharan...
Vol. 15 (eds. Clüsener-Godt, M. and Sachs, I.) UNESCO, Paris 53–89. Boserup, Ester (original 1965: last printing 2005) The Conditions of Agricultural Growth:...
disproportionately on the low-income population who are struggling already. EsterBoserup suggested that expanding population leads to agricultural intensification...
intensive plough agriculture in those areas. Drawing on the work of EsterBoserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies in intensive...
the majority of sub-Saharan African societies. Drawing on the work of EsterBoserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies between the male-dominated...
economics, particularly inspired by the works of Alexander Chayanov and EsterBoserup. These cultural ecologists were concerned with how human groups made...
1909 – Fred Perry, English tennis player and academic (d. 1995) 1910 – EsterBoserup, Danish economist and author (d. 1999) 1911 – Big Joe Turner, American...
Nigerian Cocoa Farmers published in 1956 by Galletti, Baldwin and Dina. EsterBoserup's pioneering Women's Role in Economic Development brought greater, attention...
movements of the 1960s, although they mainly focused on men's history. EsterBoserup, a scholar of historical economics, published her groundbreaking book...
This[clarification needed] was later used in the mid-1900s by the economist EsterBoserup (1910–1999) to attempt to discount some aspects of Malthusian theory...
the Old World between 1700 and 1900 (with Nancy Qian). In line with EsterBoserup's hypothesis, the introduction and historical use of plough agriculture...
anthropological studies of contemporary economies, including the work of EsterBoserup showed many flaws with Postan's key assumptions about demography and...
skeptic outlook. He also came to be influenced by Danish economist EsterBoserup, who found that, in contrast to Thomas Malthus, a growing population...
interdisciplinarity to analyze global socio-economic change: a tribute to EsterBoserup", in Benería, Lourdes; Bisnath, Savitri (eds.), Global tensions: challenges...
that have communal grazing areas or "tribal tenure," Danish economist EsterBoserup, found that large families are desirable because more children means...
philologist, linguist, and academic. Robert Bend, 85, Canadian politician. EsterBoserup, 89, Danish and French economist. Rowena Mary Bruce, 80, English chess...
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