C. Jones
University of California at Berkeley
Department of Economics
Spring Semster, 2007

Economics 236C -- Economic Growth (2nd Year Macro Field Course)

Office Hours: Mondays, 1 - 3pm
Final: Wednesday, May 9, 1-4pm, Evans 597
Problem sets can be downloaded here.
Last year's final exam for review.

Overview
This course primarily studies a collection of recent papers on economic growth.  Also, a number of recent papers of general interest in macro will be read toward the end of the course.  The purpose of the class is to introduce you to some frontier research topics in macroeconomics and to prepare you to undertake research on your own.

Requirements

(1) You should read the papers in advance of the weekly class meeting and come to class prepared to discuss the paper. To be sure this is the case, at the beginning of each class you will be required to hand in THREE typewritten questions related to the paper or papers being discussed (be sure to keep a copy for yourself). There will also typically be a brief problem set associated with each paper. Finally, at the start of each class I will call on one student randomly and ask that student to summarize the readings for the day.

(2) A three-to-five page discussion of a research idea that is motivated by this class.  Throughout the class (and for the rest of your life!), you should be keep a list of possible research topics.   On the last day of class, May 2, you will be expected to hand in a three-to-five page discussion of one of these topics and give a 10 minute overview of your idea: What is the key question you hope to answer, and how will you go about answering the question?

(3) There will also be a final exam at a date to be announced.
Useful Links
References on Economic Growth An extensive, but still incomplete, list of references.
Web Links on Economic Growth
Daron Acemoglu's Lecture Notes on Growth.

Course Schedule and Syllabus
Most readings are available on the web for you to download. For those that are not available, I will make other arrangements.
January 17
Jones, Charles I., "Sources of U.S. Economic Growth in a World of Ideas," American Economic Review, March 2002, Vol. 92 (1), pp. 220-239.
January 24
No class.
January 31
Barro, Robert J. and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Economic Growth, MIT Press, 2004. Chapter 7: "Technological Change: Schumpeterian Models of Quality Ladders," pp. 317-348.
February 7
Kortum, Samuel S., "Research, Patenting, and Technological Change," Econometrica, 1997, 65 (6), 1389-1419.

February 14
Acemoglu, Daron, "Labor- and Capital-Augmenting Technical Change," Journal of the European Economic Association March 2003, Vol. 1(1):1-37.

February 21 (rescheduled for Thurs 2/22, 2-4pm, Evans 639)
Jones, Charles I. "The Shape of Production Functions and the Direction of Technical Change" Quarterly Journal of Economics May 2005.
February 28
Greenwood, Jeremy, Zvi Hercowitz, and Per Krusell, "Long-Run Implications of Investment-Specific Technological Change," American Economic Review, June 1997, 87 (3), 342-362.
March 7
Whelan, Karl, "A Two-Sector Approach to Modeling U.S. NIPA Data," Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking August 2003, Vol. 35(4):627-656.
March 14
Hall, Robert E. and Charles I. Jones, "Why Do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output per Worker than Others?" Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1999, Vol. 114, pp. 83-116.
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, December 2001, 91 (5), 1369-1401.
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002, Vol. 107, pp. 1231-1294.
Glaeser, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, "Do Institutions Cause Growth?" Journal of Economic Growth 9 (September 2004): 271-303.
Albouy, David. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: A Reinvestigation of the Data" U.C. Berkeley mimeo, May 2006.
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. 2005. "A Response to Albouy's 'A Reexamination Based on Improved Settler Mortality Data'". Unpublished paper, M.I.T. (March).
March 21
Manuelli, Rodi and Ananth Seshadri. 2006. "Human Capital and the Wealth of Nations" Unpublished paper, University of Wisconsin.
March 28
Spring Break.
April 4
Jones, Charles I. “The Weak Link Theory of Economic Development” U.C. Berkeley unpublished paper, October 2006.
April 11
Hall, Robert E. and Jones, Charles I. "The Value of Life and the Rise in Health Spending"  Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2007.
April 18
Fahri, Emmanuel and Ivan Werning. "Inequality, Social Discounting and Estate Taxation" Unpublished paper, MIT, 2006.

April 25
Hsieh, Chang-Tai, and Peter J. Klenow. 2007. " Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India" U.C. Berkeley unpublished paper.

May 2
Discuss research proposals.