beats the hell out of endnotes
Economist notes in recent article that textbook growth theories (e.g. the Solow model) completely fail at explaining postwar economic history. None of these are explained by any textbook model: Europe catching up to the U.S. until ~1970, then falling behind; Latin America stagnating while (west-southeast) Asia booms. So is whole field of long-term growth just mathematical masturbation? Not so fast, please. The article deals with decades-long trends like the above rather than localized "events", thus seeming to indicate that the textbook models couldn't explain the trends as relating to any parameters. Attempts to explain historical data by saying countries had different savings rates or capital accumulation, for example, are unsuccessful. Must take theories in context of scope. Write this 50 times on blackboard.
Economist source, academic paper from Harvard & Brown on growth models (title footnoted for godsake) presents some more sophisticated models, involving innovation, that are more successful. An intriguing result: Good secondary education are good for countries catching-up, good tertiary education for countries on the cutting edge of technology.
School in January: inward and onward.
Economist notes in recent article that textbook growth theories (e.g. the Solow model) completely fail at explaining postwar economic history. None of these are explained by any textbook model: Europe catching up to the U.S. until ~1970, then falling behind; Latin America stagnating while (west-southeast) Asia booms. So is whole field of long-term growth just mathematical masturbation? Not so fast, please. The article deals with decades-long trends like the above rather than localized "events", thus seeming to indicate that the textbook models couldn't explain the trends as relating to any parameters. Attempts to explain historical data by saying countries had different savings rates or capital accumulation, for example, are unsuccessful. Must take theories in context of scope. Write this 50 times on blackboard.
Economist source, academic paper from Harvard & Brown on growth models (title footnoted for godsake) presents some more sophisticated models, involving innovation, that are more successful. An intriguing result: Good secondary education are good for countries catching-up, good tertiary education for countries on the cutting edge of technology.
School in January: inward and onward.
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