The Mystery of Economic Growth | 
 enlarge | Author: Elhanan Helpman
Publisher: Belknap Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 209715
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 067401572X
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.9
EAN: 9780674015722
ASIN: 067401572X
Publication Date: September 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Far more than an intellectual puzzle for pundits, economists, and policymakers, economic growth--its makings and workings--is a subject that affects the well-being of billions of people around the globe. In The Mystery of Economic Growth, Elhanan Helpman discusses the vast research that has revolutionized understanding of this subject in recent years, and summarizes and explains its critical messages in clear, concise, and accessible terms. The tale of growth economics, as Helpman tells it, is organized around a number of themes: the importance of the accumulation of physical and human capital; the effect of technological factors on the rate of this accumulation; the process of knowledge creation and its influence on productivity; the interdependence of the growth rates of different countries; and, finally, the role of economic and political institutions in encouraging accumulation, innovation, and change. One of the leading researchers of economic growth, Helpman succinctly reviews, critiques, and integrates current research--on capital accumulation, education, productivity, trade, inequality, geography, and institutions--and clarifies its relevance for global economic inequities. In particular, he points to institutions--including property rights protection, legal systems, customs, and political systems--as the key to the mystery of economic growth. Solving this mystery could lead to policies capable of setting the poorest countries on the path toward sustained growth of per capita income and all that that implies--and Helpman's work is a welcome and necessary step in this direction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 I don't know who this book is written for! April 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is simply a summation of my international economics class from five years ago. Factors of production effect growth. We don't know what inequality does. It has been found that countries with good institutions have higher growth.
If you were expecting a book like Sen's or Sach's (or even de Soto) meant for the lay person to unerstand: you got the wrong book. If you can keep up with all of the references and know some of the unexplained uses of accepted models, then you probably don't need to read it. Meanwhile if you haven't taken at least six semesters of economics, this book might as well be in Sanskrit. It's kinda like the movie Catch-22 (if you haven't read the book, don't bother; and if you have read the book, you don't need the movie).
The references to the literature are at times machine gun paced. I cannot imagine who is the target audience for this. It too simple and unrevolutionary for the economist and too esoteric for the layman. Just a waste of paper resources!
 Still a mistery... July 6, 2006
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Helpman, his name notwithstanding, doesn't help much in understanding "the mystery". Maybe the title is far too ambitious, maybe it's because of his often convoluted writing, maybe because the most important recent evolutions in growth theory seem not to have been thoroughly digested by the author, maybe because there's little about the politics of economic growth. In fact, the part on governance and institutions in particular is less than clear. The first chapters are better, though: clear and comprehensive. But that is not enough to make of this book a classic.
 Detailed, useful overview of growth economics, but not for beginners November 26, 2005
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Helpman here offers a survey of many important aspects of economic growth theory. He gives some general background and then deals with accumulation, productivity, innovation, interdependence between countries, inequality, and institutions. Be warned, however, that although he claims that his book "provides a nontechnical description of growth economics," the word "nontechnical" here simply means non-mathematical. Much of the book is peppered with economics jargon, and although the glossary at the back is helpful, a reader without some advanced undergraduate or basic graduate background in macroeconomics will struggle.
Some chapters are definitely more approachable than others, and you generally don't need to have read an earlier chapter to understand a later one. The chapters on inequality and on institutions, for example, could be understood by most readers, whereas the chapter on innovation is much more challenging.
Having some advanced training in economics, I found the book a helpful refresher course on the latest research in many areas of growth economics. A better book for someone interested in a truly nontechnical (but definitely not dumbed-down) exploration of how growth theory has been applied to economic development policy is Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth. A non-technical (and slim) volume focusing on the empirical aspects of growth research is Barro's Determinants of Economic Growth.
Solow-growth model, nothing else August 10, 2005
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
I was expecting - hoping - for something a little different. Helpman runs through the Solow growth model and does little else. I ended up putting it down. Nothing about competing theories, why economic growth models work some places and not in others, or anything beyond the mainstream model. If that's what you're looking for, that's great, but otherwise, take a look at The Elusive Quest for Growth by Bill Easterly, or The Mystery of Capital, by Hernando de Soto. Those offer a departure from the norm of development theory.
 A fine survey of what is known and unknown in economics April 6, 2005
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
What factors influence and drive economic growth? Numerous titles have studied the sources of economic growth, but mysteries remain, especially for novice readers without a solid background in economics. Enter The Mystery Of Economic Growth, presenting a fine survey of what is known and unknown in economics, and how to improve an understanding of global economic influences. Here the story of growth economics is organized around themes of technological and institutional influencers, total productivity, and interdependent growth rates of different countries.
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