INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC GROWTH JONES C. Księgarnia

Introduction to Economic Growth
Second Edition

One of the hottest fields in contemporary macroeconomics, economic growth is both fascinating to theorists and critically important to policy makers. In Introduction to Economic Growththe only text in the field designed specifically for advanced undergraduates Charles I. Jones explains in clear, direct language how economists have come to understand the long-run growth of economies. Beginning with empirical evidence how rich are the rich countries, how poor are the poor, and how fast do the rich and poor countries grow? Professor Jones then presents the major theories of economic growth, from the Nobel Prize-winning work of Robert Solow to the new growth theory that has ignited the field in recent years.

PREFACE

The importance of economic growth is difficult to overstate. The more than tenfold increase in income in the United States over the last century is the result of economic growth. So is the fact that incomes in the United States and Western Europe are at least thirty times greater than incomes in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Our understanding of economic growth has improved enormously in the last fifteen years. Since the mid-1980s, growth has been one of the most active fields of research in economics. Yet while the advances in research now play a very prominent role in academic discourse and graduate education, they have not filtered through to the undergraduate level. A large part of the reason for this neglect is that these advances have been discussed primarily in academic journals. The result is a collection of fascinating but highly technical publications replete with mathematics, the modern language of economics.

This book translates these contributions into a more accessible language. The fundamental insights of old and new growth theory are explained with an emphasis on economics instead of math. No mathematics beyond the first-semester calculus taught at most colleges and universities is required. Moreover, the bulk of the required mathematics is introduced with the Solow model in Chapter 2; the analysis in subsequent chapters merely uses the same tools over and over again.

This book should prove useful in undergraduate courses on economic growth, as well as in courses on macroeconomics, advanced macroeconomics, and economic development. Graduate students may find it valuable as a companion to the more advanced treatments available in the original journal articles and elsewhere. Finally, I hope that my colleagues will discover new insights in a place or two; I have certainly learned a tremendous amount in the process of preparing the manuscript.

This new edition of Introduction to Economic Growth has been updated in several ways. First and foremost, the data used in the figures, tables, applications, and empirical exercises have been extended so that the last year is typically 1997 instead of 1990. Second, a new chapter (Chapter 9) on the sustainability of long-run growth in the presence of finite natural resources has been included. Third, the growth accounting in Chapter 2 has been updated to incorporate a discussion of the "New Economy." Fourth, a new Appendix B presents a list of books and articles that can be used for supplementary readings. In smaller classes, I have found that combining lectures from the book with discussions of these readings produces an enlightening course. Finally, improvements to the exposition have been made in virtually every chapter in an effort to make the book even more readable and accessible.

I am deeply grateful to Robert Barro, Susanto Basu, Sunny Jones, Michael Kremer, Paul Romer, Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Bobby Sinclair, John Williams, and Alwyn Young for comments on earlier drafts. I would like to thank Aymo Brunetti, Theo Eicher (and his students), Marty Finkler, Peter Gutmann, Geoffrey Heal, Yutaka Kosai, William Nord-haus, David Romer, and Martin Weitzman for many helpful comments that I've incorporated into this new edition. I also owe thanks to the National Science Foundation for a CAREER grant (SBR-9510916) that encouraged me to teach economic growth in my undergraduate courses. Finally, this book would not have been possible without the constant encouragement and support of Terry Tao.

236 pages

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