Economic Growth

Course Description

Economic growth is one of the most important phenomena in Economics. The fact that income levels in the United States and Western Europe are at least thirty times greater than income levels in much of sub-Saharan Africa is the result of economic growth. Therefore, the question of why some countries grow faster than others is a central one in economic thought. This question was raised in Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Although, this question is not a modern issue, economists have been studying economic growth, intensively, since the second half of the twentieth century.

The purpose of this course is to examine and explain theories of economic growth, as well as the closely related empirical literature on development economics. The first part of the course will cover some exogenous growth theories. We will examine the importance of physical capital, human capital and technological progress for economic growth. Then we move to micro founded growth theories in the second part of the course. The third part of the course will touch part of the endogenous growth theories focusing on poverty trap and long-run growth. The fourth part will examine some important empirical contributions to development economics.