Growth Economics: 2021-2022

Schedule: 16.2.2022 - 18.5.2020 (Easter break 11.4.2022-18.2.2022), wednesdays 20h-23h
Room: online
Office hours: 24.2.2022 - 18.5.2022, wednesdays 18-19h (upon confirmation)
Assessment: written exam

Overview

This is a course on economic growth theory, with a view on their relationship with the most important stylised facts on growth. Our main goal is to enable students to address analytically, and not only descriptively, the main facts on economic growth. This is particularly necessary because the economic growth is a slow, hard to grasp, and a usually hidden process with huge consequences. Furthermore, upon successful completion of the course, the students should be able to understand the relevant literature and to have a knowledgeable reading of the facts.

Students are assumed to have: (1) an introductory knowledge of economic growth theory and history at the level of the first cycle; (2) mathematical knowledge of calculus, algebra and optimization at the level of the course in mathematical economics taught in the first semester of the Master in Economics.

Program

Sessions

Disclaimer: the slides, the problem sets and some solutions will be provided before the class but can be modified afterwards. The final version will be posted before the 21st May. Please check the date of document. You can find last year’s version is here

Bibliography

[Acemoglu(2009)] Daron Acemoglu. Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. Princeton University Press, 2009.

[Aghion and Durlauf(2005)] Philippe Aghion and Steven N. Durlauf, editors. Handbook of Economic Growth,, volume 1A & 1B. Elsevier, 2005.

[Aghion and Howitt(2009)] Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt. The Economics of Growth. MIT Press, 2009.

[Barro and Sala-i-Martin(2004)] Robert J. Barro and Xavier Sala-i-Martin. Economic Growth. MIT Press, 2nd edition, 2004.

[Crafts and Woltjer(2020)] Nicholas Crafts and Pieter Woltjer. Growth accounting in Economic History: findings, lessons and new directions. Journal of Economic Surveys, n/a(n/a), 2020. doi: 10.1111/joes.12348. URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joes.12348.

[Gallardo-Albarrán and Inklaar(2020)] Daniel Gallardo-Albarrán and Robert Inklaar. The role of capital and productivity in accounting for the incme differences since 1913. Journal of Economic Surveys, 2020.

[Hanushek and Woessmann(2015)] Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann. The Knowledge Capital of Nations. CESifo Book Series. MIT Press, 2015.

[Vollrath(2020)] Dietrich Vollrath. Fully Grown. Chicago University Press, Chicago, 2020.

	Topic	Slide	Problem set


1	Introduction	Introduction

2	Toolkit for economic growth theory	Toolkit	problem set 1: toolkit
3	Malthusian models	Malthusian growth theory	problem set 2: Malthus, problem set 2: solutions

4.1	Exogenous growth: add hoc model	Solow growth theory	problem set 3: Solow, problem set 3: solutions

4.2	Exogenous growth: optimal growth,	Ramsey model	problem set 4: Ramsey, problem set 4: solutions
5	The AK model	AK model	problem set 5: AK models
6	The Romer model	Romer externality growth model	problem set 5: Romer models
7	A New-Keynesian growth model	imperfect competition and growth	paper
8.0	R&D an growth	Introduction
8.1	Expansion of varieties	R&D and expansion of varieties model	problem set 6
8.4	Automation	Robots and growth	problem set 7
10	Growth, taxes, and government debt	Growth, taxes and government debt	problem set 8