Lectures on Economic Growth

This volume brings together Robert Lucas’ seminal papers on economic growth together with the Kuznets lectures that he delivered at Yale University. Issues surrounding economic growth have been intensely debated in the field of economics during the past fifteen years. Economists are trying to find plausible answers to such questions as why some countries experienced rapid growth in the post-war era while others stagnated and why per capita income which had been constant for most of human history, suddenly took off in the eighteenth century. The framework in all chapters is a model with accumulation of both physical and human capital through diffusion of new knowledge or on-the-job learning, often stimulated by trade. The topics presented include: A general theory of how growth could be sustained and why growth rates might differ in different countries; A model of exceptional growth in certain countries in the twentieth century; An account of the take-off of growth in the industrial revolution; A prediction of the patterns of growth this new century; The Kuznets lectures considering the interaction of human capital, growth and demographic transition; A diffusion model to illustrate the possibility that inter-society income inequality will decline in this century. The volume presents a coherent view of economic growth for students and researchers in economics, and policy-makers.