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Course module: UCSSCECO32
UCSSCECO32
Advanced Economics: Economic Growth
Course info
Course codeUCSSCECO32
EC7.5
Course goals
After completing this course students are able to:
  • indicate the importance of economic growth in a historical perspective;
  • formulate the necessary conditions for economic growth;
  • describe the different theoretical and practical problems that occur when analyzing economic growth;
  • analyze economic growth using formal models, and with these analyses give insight into the effects of economic policy on growth;
  • analyze  a growth process systematically based on economic theory and empirical data
Content
Lucas once said that it is hard to think about anything else when you realize the importance and impact of (the absence of) economic growth on the lives of people in the long run. Understanding long run economic growth is considered the Holy Grail in macroeconomics and it has attracted the best and brightest minds to the field. Still, a lot remains to be researched and understood. This makes economic growth an exciting area of research and study.

This course gives an overview of the causes and effects of economic growth and the theories and instruments that economists use to explain economic growth. We are especially interested in explaining the differences in the rate of growth of different countries and in different eras. The material covered by the course ‘Macroeconomics’ includes the role of savings, the capital stock, population growth and (exogenous) technological progress. All of these were discussed in the context of the Solow model. In this course, we go beyond that model and investigate the role of a large number of other factors: demography, human capital, innovation, globalization, institutions, geography, government policy, cultural differences and raw materials. We will discuss several models that economists use to explain the impact and effect of such considerations on economic growth. To be able to discuss and appreciate the economics in the material that is offered, the course will require some mathematics. We expect at least an open and constructive attitude towards and some basic background in that indispensable tool.
Format
Lectures (possibly including some guest lectures) and assignments. The lectures and assignments are primarily intended to help you master the material in the textbook for this course: Weil, David N., Economic Growth. Pearson. Addison Wesley. This book will be discussed almost entirely and at a speed of two chapters a week in general.
  
 
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Kies de Nederlandse taal