This paper deals with the population growth rate and its policy implications for the economy of Bangladesh. Despite its obvious influence on the economy, population has never been integrated as an endogenous variable in any planning model. Development Planning is mostly supported by donor agencies which involves little micro-level planning and practically no trickle-down effect. This paper makes an effort at examining the interaction of population and other development variables in the planning process of Bangladesh. The necessity of such a study can be discerned if we look into the socio-economic scenario of rural Bangladesh, where a significant proportion of the population constitute landless farmers and share-croppers and where also the land ownership pattern contribute to low productivity. Increase in population acts as a catalyst to further pauperization of rural masses. This process is further compounded by increasing foreign aid dependence, adverse terms of trade in the international market, low savings and investment and worsening terms of trade of the rural sector. During the period spanning 1949/50 to 1969/70 real per capita GDP increased only at a rate of 1% per annum and during the period from 1969/70 to 1982/83 real growth of GDP fell behind population growth rate.Apparently there is a need for cost-benefit analysis of fertility reduction. The cost-benefit ratio of most countries vary between 1:10 to 1:30, for Bangladesh it is 1:16. Certain macro-model studies indicate that higher the intensity of fertility reduction and shorter the period of required decline, the higher will be the benefits expected in terms of gains in per capita income. There is however a contradiction between national and household interests. The latter’s decision for having more children has a negative spill over effect which nullifies the gains of the community.Apparently this is where the role of family planning programme comes in, which although operative for along time suffered serious set-back during and after the liberation of Bangladesh mainly due to administrative reasons. Under such conditions mobilization of government machinery and raising the consciousness of people is a necessity.

The objective of this paper is to find the variables that are important in determining the demand for money in Bangladesh and the way they affect it. A large number of both theoretical and empirical exercises have been carried out for matured capitalist countries to support the monetary hypothesis that the demand for money must be related to interest rate changes. Although the institutional arrangement in which the theory was posited did not apply to most of the LDCs many authors showed the existence of inverse relationship between demand for money and interest rate in many LDCs including Bangladesh without giving any adequate theoretical justification of such a relationship. In the absence of institutional environment of the matured capitalist economy one can expect that the demand for money in LDCs would be determined primarily by transaction motive only. The empirical results presented in this paper suggest that the publics’ desired cash holdings are functionally related to the level of income, foreign aid and the price level or inflation rate. An increase in real income and inflow of foreign aid tends to increase the demand for money while an increase in the price level (or inflation rate) tends to lower it. Apparently there is a need for cost-benefit analysis of fertility reduction. The cost-benefit ratio of most countries vary between 1:10 to 1:30, for Bangladesh it is 1:16. Certain macro-model studies indicate that higher the intensity of fertility reduction and shorter the period of required decline, the higher will be the benefits expected in terms of gains in per capita income. There is however a contradiction between national and household interests. The latter’s decision for having more children has a negative spill over effect which nullifies the gains of the community.Apparently this is where the role of family planning programme comes in, which although operative for along time suffered serious set-back during and after the liberation of Bangladesh mainly due to administrative reasons. Under such conditions mobilization of government machinery and raising the consciousness of people is a necessity.

This paper attempts to measure and analyse the changes in the productive use of capital and labour in jute and cotton textile industries in Bangladesh especially over two distinct time periods, pre-liberation and post-liberation. The paper demonstrates that in the case of cotton textile industry the positive trend growth rate in capital productivity had outweighed the negative trend growth rate in labour productivity leading to a positive growth rate in total factor productivity over the whole period (1962-78). In the case of jute textile industry, however, the trend rate of growth for both labour and capital productivity is negative leading to a negative growth rate in total productivity over the same period. In the case of both jute and cotton textile industry capital intensity had been higher during pre-liberation period than during post-liberation period. The falling rates of capital intensity in the post-liberation period outweighed the rising capital intensity in the pre-liberation period leading to an overall negative growth rate in capital intensity. The paper concludes that productivity performance of both jute and cotton textile industry is far from satisfactory. The paper identifies and distinguishes two sets of factors influencing the factor productivity of both jute and cotton textile industry over the two time periods. It concludes with some observations relating to the policy implications of these findings.