LECTURES IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
Spring 2015  Tuesdays 13-15 in CSS 35-3-12
LECTURER: CHRISTIAN GROTH

Textbook: Acemoglu, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Princeton University Press, 2009.
Supplementary: Groth, Lecture Notes in Economic Growth, Febr. 2015 (mimeo). Additional material is accessible via this site or via Faculty Library of the Social Sciences.
I very much welcome comments and suggestions of any kind relating to the course material, including the lecture notes and exercise problems.
The Class exercises are given by Niklas Brønager Thursdays 8-10 in CSS 2-1-12.
Here is the very preliminary plan for the lectures.

Date Topic (ex ante as planned, ex post as realized) Read (DA x means ch. x in Daron, LN y means Ch. y in Lecture Notes)                       Comments
        before        after
2/2 Introduction. Facts about growth and world income distribution. Refresher: Terminology on technology. DA 1, 2.1, and 2.4-6; LN 1, 2 and 3. Cursory: Jones and Romer (2010). DA Chapter 1-2, 5, and 24, but only these chapters, are available by the publisher for download here. Slides from lecture (not all in the textbook).
Afterthoughts.
Errata to textbook.
 
9/2 Follow-up on last lecture. Elasticity of factor substitution. Transition to continuous time. Neutral vs. biased technical change. LN 2 and 3. DA, p. 52 at the bottom; DA 2.7-9.  Errata to the textbook.  Afterthought about Piketty and the elasticity of factor substitution.
Short Note 1: on the elasticity of factor substitution (excerpt from lecture notes in macroeconomics).
16/2 Follow-up on neutral vs. biased technical change. Skill-biased technical change. Balanced growth theorems. Comparative dynamics. Refresher on growth accounting (primarily in class).  DA 2.7, 2.8, and 3.1. LN 4 and 5.
 		   Follow-up.
We came to Proposition 2 in LN 4. Growth accounting vs. causality to be covered in class.
Errata to LN 4.
23/2 Follow-up on last lecture. Levels accounting. Technology differences across countries.  DA 3.2 and 3.5; LN 6; Bernard and Jones (cursory). Sections marked by an asterisk are only cursory reading.
Outside syllabus: Growth accounting for the very long run.		 Follow-up.
2/3 A "population breeds ideas" model; the end of the Malthusian regime. Proximate vs. fundamental determinants of differences in economic performance. DA 4.2, LN 7. Kremer (1993)  cursory. DA 4.1, 4.3-8.   Slides from today's lecture.
Follow-up on the colonial origins of comparative development.
9/3 Transitional dynamics, speed of convergence (SOC), and Barro regressions. Brief brush-up of the Ramsey model for a competitive economy. LN 6. As to the brush-up you may read either DA 8.1-5, and 8.7-12 or Groth, LN in Macro, Chapter 9.4-5 and 10.1-4. A Discussion Forum for the course has been established in Absalon and is waiting for contributions. Follow-up.
Short Note 2: On saddle-point stability.
16/3   Macroeconomic cost-benefit analysis with a long time horizon. The social planner. Optimal capital accumulation. Application to the climate change problem. DA 8.3 or Groth, LN in Macro, Chapter 10.5.
LN 8.1-3.		 Coming book by R. Stern: Why are we waiting? MIT Press, April 2015. Errata to LN 8.
Follow-up
23/3 Brief brush-up of Diamond's OLG model. Introduction to human capital. Follow-up on optimal capital accumulation and the climate change problem. LN 8.4; Arrow (2007).
DA 9.2 cursory. LN 9.1.  		Midterm paper problem to be  announced 24/3 at 16:00.
Deadline for midterm paper 13/4 at 10:15.		 Errata to LN 9.
30/3 Life-cycle approach to human capital. Separation theorem. Human wealth maximization.  The Mincer equation. Balanced growth with human capital and R&D. LN 9.1-5 and LN 10.
DA 10.1, 10.8.
 		 Human capital and catching-up is considered in Exercise V.3.
 
6/4 Easter holiday      
13/4 The simple AK model. Reduced-form AK model with human and physical capital. Learning by investing: Arrow vs. Romer. Follow-up on human capital and R&D.
DA 11.1-2 and 11.4-5; LN 11 and LN 12.		 Until 14/4 at 17:47, LN 12 lacked two figures (at p. 189 and p. 195). For those who downloaded earlier, the two pages are here:
p. 189 and p. 195.		 Errata to LN 11.
20/4 Empirics on learning by doing. Weak and strong scale effects.  Follow-up on Reduced-form AK models and Learning by investing.
LN 13 (now with correct numbering of §13.3-5). 		Most of LN 13 is self-tuition. As usual, if a section is marked by * , it is cursory reading which only means that the technical aspects are not relevant for the exam. Homework was returned with comments. The questions for discussion proposed by participants answering Question 5c) will be posted in Discussion Forum in Absalon.
One student has some time ago uploaded some questions which are now briefly answered.
27/4 No lecture. But class Thursday as usual.      
4/5 Types of technological innovations. The lab-equipment model of horizontal innovations.  DA 12.1-2 and 12.5, all cursory.
DA 13.1. LN 14.		 Data on vertical innovations: Moore 's law Errata to LN 14.
Follow-up
11/5 The lab-equipment model of horizontal innovations, cont'd. Social planner.  Stochastic erosion of monopoly power. Dilemmas in patent design. The knowledge-spillover model: Romer's vs. Jones' version.  LN 14, LN 15. DA 13.1-3 (13.2-3 cursory). Jones (1995a) (excl. § 4-5). DA 13.4-5, cursory, and 14.5 cursory. The social planner problem will be dealt with in class in connection with Exercise VII.4 and the Jones (1995a) model will be dealt with in connection with Exercise VII.7.
Intro to expanding consumer good varieties, vertical innovations, and creative destruction was given in lecture 4/5.		 Errata to LN 15.
18/5 Natural resources, environment, and sustainable economic development.
General discussion of issues raised in the Discussion Forum in Absalon.		 We begin with a brief follow-up on knowledge-spillover models.
LN 16, cursory.
Brief discussion of questions proposed by participants answering Question 5c) in homework, see Discussion Forum in Absalon.
 		 In connection with the questions in Discussion Forum about the relationship between inequality and growth there is a list of references here. You may e-mail me questions related to the exam and I will answer here ASAP. Deadline for your questions is June 2, at 4 p.m.

All lecture notes in one PDF-file, incl. Short Note 1 and 2.
      A short note on saddle-point stability is placed at 9/3 above.  
      New errata to lecture notes.  
      Last chance for signing on courses Autumn 2015 is June 1 !!!
New rules.		  
4/6 3-hours closed book exam.      
         

Link to class exercises.
Link to front page