B.Tech

This Subject Includes

• Course No: HS 164
• Course: B.Tech
• Semester:
• Title: Introduction to Economic Growth
• Stream:

• Preamble / Objectives (Optional): This course explores the dynamics of economic growth and

  development, with a special focus on understanding the basic growth theories. The objective of the course

  is to link these theories to existing data and empirical patterns, enabling students to understand puzzles

  and discrepancies pertaining to varied nature of growth and development prevalent across different

  countries.

  Course Content/ Syllabus

  Basic macroeconomic concepts: opportunity cost, supply and demand, GDP, inflation, unemployment,

  monetary and fiscal policy; Understanding economic growth: empirical patterns, relevance of growth,

  modern growth theory; The Solow-Swan model: the fundamental equation, the steady state, capital

  accumulation and dynamic inefficiency, absolute and conditional convergence, critique of the Solow-Swan

  model; The Ramsey model: setup, first order conditions, the steady state, saving rate, speeds of

  convergence, issue of household heterogeneity, critique of the Ramsey model; Endogenous growth

  models: absence of diminishing returns to capital, the AK model, technological progress, investment in

  human capital.

  Books (In case UG compulsory courses, please give it as “Text books” and “Reference books”. Otherwise

  give it as “References”.

  Texts: (Format: Authors, Book Title in Italics font, Volume/Series, Edition Number, Publisher, Year.)

  Texts: Charles Jones and Dietrich Vollrath, Introduction to Economic Growth, Third edition, WW Norton and Company, 2013

  Reference: Robert J. Barro and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Economic Growth, Second edition, MIT Press, 2004 Soumyen Sikdar, Principles of Macroeconomics, Third edition, Oxford University Press, 2020