Department of Economics

Course: Macroeconomics of Development

Code: ECO314

Semester: Β

Instructor: Nicholas J. Theocarakis

The Macroeconomics of Development is a course on modern economic growth. It introduces students to the mathematical techniques of growth models, the stylized facts of economic growth, the theory and empirics of convergence, technical progress, the economics of ideas and models of exogenous and endogenous economic growth.                           

Course outline

The mathematics of economic growth [incl. elements of optimal control theory]

Stylized facts (Kaldor, Jones & Romer)

The Harrod-Domar model of economic growth

Exogenous models of economic growth [Solow-Swan, Ramsay-Cass-Koopmans]

Technical progress 

The economics of ideas

Endogenous models of economic growth (AK, Romer, Lucas, Aghion& Howitt).

Von Neumann model of economic growth.

Convergence.

Suggested texts

Charles I. Jones, Introduction to economic growth, 2nd edn, W.W. Norton, New York, 2002.

Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt,The economics of growth, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009.

Robert M. Solow, Growth theory: an exposition, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, New York, 2000.

E-class: lecture notes [by Nicholas J. Theocarakis&LefterisTserkezis], readings, guides and links