Author Description

Product Description Growth and Economic Development shows how the different theories of growth - from the classical to the endogenous growth and Schumpeterian theories - can be brought together to develop a satisfactory explanation of the varying rates of growth between countries.A concise survey of the many theories of growth and development, which provides a context for understanding how different models can co-exist, is followed by an exploration of how Solow's growth models assess the effects of technological progress. The author then enlarges Schumpeter's theory of economic development by using the theory of natural evolution and selection. Professor Lombardini uses a simple model to show how innovation can account for growth and an evolutionary model to determine conditions in which selection can produce growth. Both these models deal with the economy as a whole. In addition, a new method - computational economics - is used to develop useful generalizations about the roles of different factors for development. Review 'The collection of imaginative essays reviewed here by the doyen of Italian academic economics, Siro Lombardini, is an 'interesting and socially valuable journey' by a supreme economic theorist, who is also a master of the history of economic thought. I cannot easily think of any other economist who can wear the Schumpeterian mantle without the slightest discomfort and, indeed, make its glow light novel paths along the evolutionary journey that the pioneers of our subject initiated and the frontiers seem to be encapsulating.... this book is one of the finest primers, at any level, on what, for want of a better phrase, I shall call Schumpeterian dynamic economics. Together with the modern classic by Nelson and Winter, this book could easily provide the basic reading material for an innovative graduate or advanced undergraduate course on growth and development from an evolutionary and computational perspective.' -- K. Vela Velupil