Economic Growth Theory

Chapter 1 Economic Growth and Growth Theory

1.1 Economic Growth

There is one central, simple, and everyday question in economic growth theory: why are some countries/races rich, and others poor? Economic growth theory is concerned with the rise and decline of economic systems. Its central task is to explain economic growth and interdependence between growth and other variables (such as education policy, R&D policy, economic structure, income distribution, saving, work efficiency, population, capital, resources, sexual division of labor and consumption, public goods, and tax structure). How can we account for the phenomenal disparities in living standards around the world? Why are countries, like the United States and Japan, so rich, and why are ...