Short description
This graduate-level text on economic growth surveys neoclassical and more recent theories of growth, stressing their empirical implications and the relation of theory to data and evidence. The book has been revised and expanded in many areas, and incorporates contemporary research.
Long description
This graduate-level text on economic growth surveys neoclassical and more recent theories of growth, stressing their empirical implications and the relation of theory to data and evidence. The book has been revised and expanded in many areas, and incorporates contemporary research. After an introductory discussion of economic growth, the book examines neoclassical growth theories, from Solow-Swan in the 1950s and Cass-Koopmans in the 1960s to more recent refinements; this is followed by a discussion of extensions to the models. The book then turns to endogenous growth theory, discussing, among other topics, models of endogenous technological progress, technological diffusion and an endogenous determination of labour supply and population. The authors then explain the essentials of growth accounting and apply this framework to endogenous growth models. The final chapters cover empirical analysis of regions and empirical evidence on economic growth for a broad panel of countries from 1960 to 2000.
Review
Barro and Sala-i-Martin have done a superb job of synthesizing much of the existing theoretical and empirical research on the mechanisms and determinants of economic growth and convergence. Though it incorporates much new material, this updated version is fully accessible to a third year undergraduate student, while remaining of invaluable use to any research scholar seriously interested in growth and development economics. --Phillipe Aghion, Department of Economics, Harvard University