Featuring survey articles by leading economists working on growth theory, this two-volume set covers theories of economic growth, the empirics of economic growth, and growth policies and mechanisms. It also covers technology, trade and geography, and growth and socio-economic development.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of Korea’s macroeconomic growth and structural change since World War II, and traces some of the roots of development to the colonial period. The authors explore in detail colonial development, changing national income patterns, relative price shifts, sources of aggregate growth, and sources of sectoral structural change, comparing them with other countries.

This handbook organizes chapters by sets of policies that are important components of discussions about how to facilitate development. In each chapter, authors identify and discuss the relevant theoretical and empirical literature that describes the fundamental problems that the policies seek to remedy or ameliorate, as well as the literature that evaluates the effects of the policies. It presents an accurate, self-contained survey of the current state of the field. It summarizes the most recent discussions, and elucidates new developments. Although original material is also included, the main aim is the provision of comprehensive and accessible surveys

A comprehensive, rigorous, and up-to-date introduction to growth economics that presents all the major growth paradigms and shows how they can be used to analyze the growth process and growth policy design. This comprehensive introduction to economic growth presents the main facts and puzzles about growth, proposes simple methods and models needed to explain these facts, acquaints the reader with the most recent theoretical and empirical developments, and provides tools with which to analyze policy design. The treatment of growth theory is fully accessible to students with a background no more advanced than elementary calculus and probability theory; the reader need not master all the subtleties of dynamic programming and stochastic processes to learn what is essential about such issues as cross-country convergence, the effects of financial development on growth, and the consequences of globalization. The book, which grew out of courses taught by the authors at Harvard and Brown universities, can be used both by advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and as a reference for professional economists in government or international financial organizations. The Economics of Growth first presents the main growth paradigms: the neoclassical model, the AK model, Romer's product variety model, and the Schumpeterian model. The text then builds on the main paradigms to shed light on the dynamic process of growth and development, discussing such topics as club convergence, directed technical change, the transition from Malthusian stagnation to sustained growth, general purpose technologies, and the recent debate over institutions versus human capital as the primary factor in cross-country income differences. Finally, the book focuses on growth policies—analyzing the effects of liberalizing market competition and entry, education policy, trade liberalization, environmental and resource constraints, and stabilization policy—and the methodology of growth policy design. All chapters include literature reviews and problem sets. An appendix covers basic concepts of econometrics.

"The essential role institutions play in understanding economic development has long been recognised and has been closely studied across the social sciences but some of the most high profile work has been done by economists many of whom are included in this collection covering a wide range of topics including the relationship between institutions and growth, educational systems, the role of the media and the intersection between traditional systems of patronage and political institutions. Each chapter covers the frontier research in its area and points to new areas of research and is the product of extensive workshopping and editing. The editors have also written an excellent introduction which brings together the key themes of the handbook. The list of contributors is stellar (Steven Durlauf, Throsten Beck, Bob Allen,and includes a diverse mix of Western and non Western, male and female scholars)"

A rigorous, pathbreaking analysis demonstrating that a country's prosperity is directly related in the long run to the skills of its population. In this book Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann make a simple, central claim, developed with rigorous theoretical and empirical support: knowledge is the key to a country's development. Of course, every country acknowledges the importance of developing human capital, but Hanushek and Woessmann argue that message has become distorted, with politicians and researchers concentrating not on valued skills but on proxies for them. The common focus is on school attainment, although time in school provides a very misleading picture of how skills enter into development. Hanushek and Woessmann contend that the cognitive skills of the population—which they term the “knowledge capital” of a nation—are essential to long-run prosperity. Hanushek and Woessmann subject their hypotheses about the relationship between cognitive skills (as consistently measured by international student assessments) and economic growth to a series of tests, including alternate specifications, different subsets of countries, and econometric analysis of causal interpretations. They find that their main results are remarkably robust, and equally applicable to developing and developed countries. They demonstrate, for example, that the “Latin American growth puzzle” and the “East Asian miracle” can be explained by these regions' knowledge capital. Turning to the policy implications of their argument, they call for an education system that develops effective accountability, promotes choice and competition, and provides direct rewards for good performance.

The essays are concise, yet comprehensive, and each essay contains a substantial set of references, which an interested researcher or student could follow up. . . In addition to representing multidisciplinary interactions, this collection encompasses several different perspectives within development economics, so the reader can learn, for example, both about neoclassical approaches and dependency theories in the same volume. This makes the collection unique and all the more valuable. . . This is a very good reference collection, as the individual essays are informative and provide a good overall perspective on the topic that they set out to address. The extensive bibliography at the end of each essay adds further value to this collection. Ashwini Deshpande, Economic and Political Weekly These new volumes impress along two dimensions. First, they highlight important connections between economic development and variables such as culture, warfare, and ethnicity, which are sometimes ignored by mainstream economists. Second, they analyze the economic development experience of different regions such as Africa, Latin America, and East Asia. . . a valuable reference for scholars and practitioners in the field. Highly recommended. H.A. Faruq, Choice This two-volume original reference work provides a comprehensive overview of development economics and comprises contributions by some of the leading scholars working in the field. Authors are drawn from around the world and write on a wide range of topics. After providing an introduction to the subject (by examining issues like the meaning and measurement of development, historical and interdisciplinary approaches, empirical regularities and data problems), the contributors provide a wealth of perspectives on, and analyses of, development economics. They discuss alternative approaches to development, the macroeconomics of growth, factors and sources of economic development (such as capital, labor, entrepreneurship, resources and technology), major sectors of concern (such as agriculture, industry, services and the informal sector) and international issues (such as trade, capital and labor flows and technology transfers). Income distribution and poverty, the state and other institutions, and actual development experiences are explored. The contributors provide analytical contributions, as well as the relation between these contributions and real world and policy issues from a variety of alternative perspectives. Scholars, students, policymakers and other development practitioners will all find this comprehensive reference invaluable.

Included in the text are comprehensive interpretations of subjects such as: the relationship between aggregate supply and demand and long run growth, the interaction of growth and technical change, and international and regional a vibrant and ongoing research effort to understand the macrodynamics of capitalist economies. As such, this Handbook provides a valuable springboard for further research that will continue the development of these theories, inspiring both existing researchers and those new to the field to build upon the body of work the volume represents. --

The problem of efficient or optimal allocation of resources is a fundamental concern of economic analysis. This book provides surveys of significant results of the theory of optimal growth, as well as the techniques of dynamic optimization theory on which they are based. Armed with the results and methods of this theory, a researcher will be in an advantageous position to apply these versatile methods of analysis to new issues in the area of dynamic economics.

Why are some countries rich and others poor? David N. Weil, one of the top researchers in economic growth, introduces students to the latest theoretical tools, data, and insights underlying this pivotal question. By showing how empirical data relate to new and old theoretical ideas, Economic Growth provides readers with a complete introduction to the discipline and the latest research.