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The rural and urban populations does not necessarily drift downward in the process of economic growth: indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that it is stable at best, and tends to widen because per capita productivity in urban pursuits increases more rapidly than in agriculture.

— Simon Kuznets

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More quotes by Simon Kuznets

The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income.

The paper is perhaps 5 per cent empirical information and 95 per cent speculation, some of it possibly tainted by wishful thinking.

[An] epochal innovation [consisting of the] spreading application of science to processes of production and social organization.

Modern economic growth (1966)

Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between its costs and return, and between the short and the long term. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.

Simon Kuznets in: Herbert David Croly eds (1962)

[The principal characteristic of this economic epoch is] a sustained increase in per capita or per worker product, most often accompanied by an increase in population and usually sweeping structural changes.

Modern economic growth (1966)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Simon Kuznets (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.