ECON 428 Growth and Development

18 points. Not offered in 2009.

Overview

ECON428 is an 18-point semester course, for fourth-year Economics Honours students, but is available to other students with the approval of the HOD, Economics. Whereas ECON 376 and ECON 424 are concerned principally with the business cycle, this course is about the major theories of economic growth. Taking the neoclassical growth model as its starting point, the course examines the new growth theory, especially research and development models and models incorporating human capital. It also critically examines a range of recent empirical approaches to studying how growth performances vary across countries and the recent literature on fundamental determinants of different income levels across countries.

Classes

There will be one two-hour lecture per week. The classes will be a mixture of lecture and tutorial and will often require your active participation.

Aim of the course

The principal aim of the course is to build the student’s confidence to read and understand the advanced growth literature. The course does not shy away from the technical skills necessary to achieve this aim; specifically needed mathematical techniques are taught in the course. It also tries to put students in a position to assess critically various recent empirical work in economic growth. The best background you can bring to the course is a good pass in ECON376.

The main topics to be covered are:

• The neo-classical growth model
• Research and development models
• Human capital models
• Empirical studies of growth

Reading

The essential reading for the course is contained in chapters 1 and 3 of Advanced Macroeconomics by David Romer, (2001, second edition). Supplementary reading will be indicated in the detailed topic outlines.

Assessment

There will be a mid-semester test, worth 20% of the assessment. There will also be an empirical assignment, worth 10%, on the final topic (fundamental determinants of income levels). The final exam will be worth 70%. Plussage will be applied separately on the test and the assignment; i.e. each piece of internal assessment will be counted in the final grade only if it improves it.

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Paper co-ordinator

Robert Alexander

Prerequisites

ECON 375 and ECON 376

Course Outline

For more information you can download the 2008 Course Outline in pdf format.

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