Papers

For a curated list of the newest research on economic growth, see the NEP-GRO mailing list/RSS feed. Marc Klemp does a great job of serving up interesting new papers on a roughly weekly basis.

If you are new to the field then the following papers provide a nice entry point.

Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2010.
“Development Accounting,”
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics,
American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 207-23, January.

Mancur Olson, 1996.
“Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk: Why Some Nations Are Rich, and Others Poor,”
Journal of Economic Perspectives,
American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 3-24, Spring.

Nathan Nunn, 2009.
“The Importance of History for Economic Development,”
Annual Review of Economics,
Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 65-92, 05.

Galor, Oded, 2005.
“From Stagnation to Growth: Unified Growth Theory,”
Handbook of Economic Growth,
in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 171-293
Elsevier.

Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Peter Howitt, 2013.
“What Do We Learn From Schumpeterian Growth Theory?,”
NBER Working Papers
18824, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2006.
“The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period,”
The Quarterly Journal of Economics,
MIT Press, vol. 121(2), pages 351-397, May.

The following are links to review articles that eventually were published in the Handbook of Economic Growth

1. Culture, Entrepreneurship, and Growth. Doepke and Zilibotti
2. Trust, Growth, and Well-Being, Algann and Cahuc
3. Long-term Barriers to Economic Development, Spolaore and Wacziarg
4. Family Ties, Alesina and Giuliano
5. The Industrial Revolution, Clark
6. Twentieth-Century Growth, Crafts and O’Rourke
7. Historical Development, Nunn
8. Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective, Ogilvie and Carus
9. What Do We Learn from Schumpeterian Growth Theory? Aghion, Akcigit, and Howitt
10. Technology Diffusion: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences, Comin and Mestieri
11. Health and Economic Growth, Weil
12. Regional Growth and Regional Decline, Breinlich, Ottaviano, and Temple
13. The Growth of Cities, Duranton and Puga
14. Growth and Structural Transformation, Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi
15. The Chinese Growth Miracle, Yang Yao (can’t find a link, help!)
16. Growth From Globalization? A View from the Very Long Run, Meissner (link appears broken, help!)

For more depth on specific areas, I’m posting links (slowly and at no regular interval) to short reading lists that I use in my graduate course on growth and development.

1. Development Accounting (pdf, bib)
2. Agriculture and Growth (pdf, bib)
3. Allocation and Growth (pdf, bib)
4. Institution Empirics (pdf, bib)