LECTURES IN ECONOMIC GROWTH (CHRISTIAN GROTH)
                  Spring 2016  Fridays 8-10 in CSS 2-1-12.  Course plan and syllabus.
Main references:
Jones = Jones and Vollrath, Introduction to Economic Growth, 3rd ed., Norton: New York, 2013, selected chapters.
    The data in Table C.2 of the book can be downloaded from Jones' website. Vollrath's slides.
LN    = Groth, Lecture Notes in Economic Growth, 2016 (mimeo). Ch. 1-4 here. Ch. 5-7. Subsequent chapters, see below. Updated list of contents (incomplete).
DA    = Daron Acemoglu, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Princeton Univ. Press, 2009, a few selected sections.
Additional references are accessible via Faculty Library of the Social Sciences or via this site.       Link to Class exercises.
I very much welcome comments and suggestions of any kind relating to the course material, including the lecture notes and exercise problems.
Here is the preliminary time schedule for the lectures:
Date Topic (ex ante as planned, ex post as realized) In advance read                                Comments
        before        after
12/2 Facts about growth and world income distribution. Refresher: Terminology on technology. Transition to continuous time. DA Ch1 and Ch2.1;
Jones Ch1. Cursory: Jones and Romer (2010).
NEW: Jones' Facts 2015.
LN Ch1, Ch2.1-2, and Ch3; Jones App. A.		 DA Chapter 1-2, 5, and 24, but only these chapters, are available by the publisher for download. DA Table of Contents.
Afterthoughts.
We came to LN Ch. 2.
In class 17/2 Niklas will give a brief refresher on terminology etc. based on LN Ch2.1-2 and Ch. 3 before the discussion of the exercises on the agenda. 
19/2 Elasticity of factor substitution and factor income shares. Neutral vs. biased technical change (Harrod vs. Hicks).  LN Ch2.5-7. Errata to Ch. 2-4.
Not important this year: A list of suggested errata to the Acemoglu book here.		 In LN Ch2.1 there are references to an absent appendix. It is here for those interested. Also in LN Ch2.6-7 there are references to an absent appendix. It is here. 
26/2 The CES production function. Growth accounting  vs. causes of growth (primarily in class).  LN Ch2.7. LN Ch4, LN Ch5.
Jones Ch2.4.
Cursory: DA Ch3.1-2. 		  Skill-biased technical change (LN Ch4.1)postponed to lecture 4/3. Balanced growth propositions (LN Ch4.2-6) postponed to class 2/3 and lecture 4/3.
More errata to LN Ch. 2-4. Afterthoughts
4/3 Skill-biased technical change in the sense of Hicks. Balanced growth theorems.  Speed of (within-country) convergence. Technology differences across countries. LN Ch4 and Ch6.1-3.
Jones Ch3.
  More errata to LN.
11/3 Ideas vs. objects. Population and ideas. The Kremer model. Jones Ch4.
LN Ch7. Cursory: Kremer (1993). Cursory and self-tuition: DA Ch4.1 and 4.3-8 (empirics about the key role of institutions). 		  Afterthoughts
18/3 The Romer-Jones horizontal innovations model. Jones Ch5.1-2. Jones Ch5.2 outlines Romer's key theoretical "innovation": integration of the micro- and macroeconomics of growth based on horizontal innovations. Afterthoughts
25/4 Easter holiday.      
1/4   Problem set for midterm paper is here.
Lecture: Follow-up on the Romer-Jones horizontal innovations model. Intro to the vertical-innovations model.		 Jones Ch5, p. 116 ff.
Short Note 2.		 In order to prepare for analysis of economic policy in an endogenous growth context, you currently have some class exercises aimed as a refresher of the Ramsey model. Afterthoughts on national income accounting in Romer-Jones model.
8/4 The Schumpeter-Jones model (vertical-innovations).  Creative destruction. Jones, Ch. 5.3-5.4.2.
Short Note 3, important, although cursory.		 As to what "cursory" means, se Course Plan, p. 3. Afterthoughts
15/4 Solving for s_R in terms of r along a BGP. Combining with Ramsey households.  Jones Ch. 5, from top of p. 129.

   
22/4 Holiday, no lecture. Alternative theories of endogenous growth.
Weak and strong scale effects. Self-tuition: Jones Ch9 and Short Note 1.		    
29/4 Human capital and technology adoption. Jones Ch. 6.1, p. 142-143 only cursory.
LN Ch9. 		  Came to LN Ch9.3.
6/5 Human capital and technology adoption, cont'd.
Intellectual property rights (IPR).
FDI, globalization, and knowledge diffusion.
Transition dynamics.
Social infrastructure and long-run economic performance.		 LN Ch9.3-6, p. 171 middle-174 only cursory. Errata. Jones Ch. 6.2-5.
As argued at lecture 29/4, Jones' (6.4) and (6.5) seem less appropriate than the years-in-school-plus- experience approach in Jones Ch. 3 and LN 9. (For lack of time, DA Ch10.8 removed from syllabus.)		 So you may a) ignore the equation just above (6.8); and b) interpret (6.8) and (6.11) in a modified form to be spelled out in the lecture. Came to Jones Ch. 6.4, on FDI. (Jones Ch. 6.3, on IPR, and 6.5, on transition dynamics, together with Ch. 7 left for self-tuition, because it is all easy reading.)
Afterthoughts.
13/5-
27/5		 Program for the remainder of the semester:
Alternative and complementary theories of endogenous growth.
The learning-by-investing model: Arrow versus Romer. Social planner and economic policy in the Romer case.
Natural resources, environment, and sustainable economic growth.
13/5 Finish technology diffusion. Socio-economic infrastructure. Alternative and complementary theories of endogenous growth: AK models, reduced-form AK models, learning-by-investing models. Jones Ch. 6.4. Ch. 7 self-tuition. LN Ch11 (11.3 only cursory) and Ch12 (now with the right Fig. 12.1 and right format) to complement Jones' Ch. 9, which is mainly self-tuition. Here is a separate page 209-10 with the right Fig. 12.1. Short Note 2 (a follow-up on Jones Ch. 5.1-2) is available under date 1/4 above.
Errata to Ch. 11.		  
20/5 Follow-up on learning by investing. Natural resources and economic growth. Sustainable growth. LN Ch12 (p. 208-212 only cursory).
LN Ch13 (p. 240-249 not in syllabus)
LN Ch16.1-3.  		 Most of LN Ch12 is done in Exercise VI.1 and VI.2. Short Note 3 (a follow-up on Jones Ch. 5.3-6) is available under date 8/4 above.
 We came to Ch. 16, p. 301.
Afterthoughts.
Errata to LN 16 and Short Notes - and LN 13.
27/5 Non-renewable resources and the sustainability issue.
A simple R&D-based model with an essential
non-renewable resource.		 LN Ch16.4-5, p. 301-315, line 4 (the remainder of Ch16 not in syllabus).
About empirics: Jones Ch. 10.3-4 and 6, only cursory.		 The course plan (now slightly updated) gives an overview of the structure of the stuff: key concepts, models, and methods ordered systematically. More Errata to LN 16 and to Jones & V.
Outside syllabus: Discount rate and the climate change problem. 
For exam preparation. LN 1-7, 9-13, 16, together with Short Note 1-3, in one pdf.
The three short notes in separate pdf's.		 Before deadline, Sunday 29th at 18:00, for e-mail questions relating to the exam, I have received one question.

 
    List of contents of LN Ch1-16 (2015-2016). LN 8, 10, 14, and 15 from this list are not part of current syllabus, but can be found at the 2015 page here.   About the relationship between inequality and growth, see Afterthoughts.
31/5 3-hours closed book exam.      
         

Link to class exercises.
Link to front page