The mystery of economic growth and the role of models in economics Explaining growth: Allen's model Explaining stagnation: Malthus' model Summary Principles of Economics1 2. Technological Change, Population, and Growth Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti2 SCOR Department of Sociology and Social Research University of Milano-Bicocca A.Y. 2018-19 1These slides are based on the material made available under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND © 4.0 by the CORE Project , https://www.core-econ.org/. 2Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126, Milan, E-mail:
[email protected] Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti Principles of Economics 1/37 The mystery of economic growth and the role of models in economics Explaining growth: Allen's model Explaining stagnation: Malthus' model Summary Layout 1 The mystery of economic growth and the role of models in economics The Industrial revolution Economists, historians, and the Industrial Revolution Economic models Four key ideas of economic modeling 2 Explaining growth: Allen's model Modeling technology Firm's choice: isocost lines and cost minimization Relative prices, innovation and profit Innovation incentives in the British Industrial Revolution 3 Explaining stagnation: Malthus' model Production function and diminishing average product of labor Malthusian economics The Malthusian trap Escaping the Malthusian trap 4 Summary Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti Principles of Economics 2/37 The mystery of economic growth and the role of models in economics The Industrial revolution Explaining growth: Allen's model Economists, historians, and the Industrial Revolution Explaining stagnation: Malthus' model Economic models Summary Four key ideas of economic modeling Real wage and population in Britain over seven centuries Rapid growth in real wages and population in the last 2 centuries Stagnation in the centuries before that.