Chad Jones
Stanford GSB
Fall Quarter, 2011
MgtEcon 610. Topics in Macroeconomics -- Economic Growth
(Ph.D. Macro Course)
Meeting: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:15 - 3:00pm in GSB Faculty Building, Room E102
Office Hours:
Chad --Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30pm, GSB Faculty Building E335
Pete -- Wednesdays, 3-5 pm, Econ 364
Contact info: chad.jones@stanford.edu, klenow@stanford.edu
Overview
This course studies frontier research on economic growth. It will meet jointly with Economics 233, taught by Professor Pete Klenow, so you should only sign up for one of these classes. The purpose of the course is to introduce you to some of the latest research in macroeconomics and to prepare you to undertake research on your own.
Requirements
(1) Prepare slides on one designated paper for each class (unless told otherwise, this will be the first paper listed for the class). Three slides total: one slide on what's good about the paper, one slide on its weaknesses, and one slide on where to go next. At the start of the class (beginning October 6) we will call on one student randomly and ask them to present their three slides. Email your slides to both of us by 10am on the day of class.
(2) Lead part of a class. Each student will take responsibility for preparing slides and leading the discussion for 50 minutes on one paper during the course; suggested papers are indicated by an asterisk (*) below. During class on October 4, we will make signup sheets available so you can pick your paper.
(3) A research proposal. Throughout the class (and for the rest of your life!), you should be keep a list of possible research topics. During the last two classes, December 6 and December 8, you will be expected to make a ~25 minute slide presentation on your idea: What is the key question you hope to answer, and how will you go about answering it?
Background References
The following readings and references may prove useful at some point. The Acemoglu book is a great resource.
Acemoglu, Daron. 2009. Introduction to Modern Economic Growth (Princeton University Press).
Jones, Charles I. 2002. Introduction to Economic Growth. Advanced undergraduate-level treatment.
Barro, Robert and Xavier Sala-i-Martin 2003. Economic Growth.
Course Schedule and Syllabus
September 27 (CJ)
Romer, Paul M. 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change" Journal of Political Economy 98: S71-S102.
Jones, Charles I. 2005. "Growth and Ideas" Handbook of Economic Growth 1B: 1063-1111.
September 29 (PK)
Edward C. Prescott 2004. "Why Do Americans Work So Much More Than Europeans?" Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review 28: 2-13.
Young, Alwyn 2010. "The African Growth Miracle" unpublished paper.
October 4 (CJ)
Kortum, Samuel S. 1997 "Research, Patenting, and Technological Change" Econometrica 65: 1389-1419.
October 6 (PK)
Klette, Tor Jakob and Samuel S. Kortum 2004. "Innovating Firms and Aggregate Innovation" Journal of Political Economy 112: 986-1018.
Broda, Christian and David Weinstein 2006. "Globalization and the Gains from Variety" Quarterly Journal of Economics 121: 541-585.
October 11 (CJ)
Acemoglu, Daron 2003. "Labor- and Capital-Augmenting Technical Change" Journal of the European Economic Association 1: 1-37.
Jones, Charles I. 2005. "The Shape of Production Functions and the Direction of Technical Change" Quarterly Journal of Economics 120: 517-549.
October 13 (PK)
* Caselli, Francesco and James Feyrer 2007. "The Marginal Product of Capital" Quarterly Journal of Economics 122: 535-568.
Buera, Francisco and Joseph Kaboski 2011. "The Macroeconomics of Microfinance" unpublished paper.
October 18 (CJ)
Acemoglu, Aghion, Bursztyn, and Hemous 2011. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change" American Economic Review, forthcoming.
* (Michela) Hansen, Gary D., and Edward C. Prescott 2002. "Malthus to Solow" American Economic Review, 92(4): 1205–1217.
October 20 (PK)
Young, Alwyn 2005. "The Gift of the Dying: The Tragedy of AIDS and the Welfare of Future African Generations" Quarterly Journal of Economics 120: 243-266.
Jones, Charles I. and Peter J. Klenow 2011. "Beyond GDP: Welfare Across Countries and Time" unpublished paper.
October 25 (CJ)
* (Misha) Lucas, Robert E., Jr. 2009. "Trade and the Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution" American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 1:1-25.
* (Rui) Gollin, Douglas, David Lagakos, and Michael Waugh 2011. "The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Developing Countries" unpublished paper.
October 27 (PK)
Hsieh, Chang-Tai and Peter J. Klenow 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India" Quarterly Journal of Economics 124: 1403-1448.
Hurst, Erik, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Charles I. Jones, and Peter J. Klenow 2011. "The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth" unpublished paper.
November 1 (CJ)
Jones, Charles I. 2011. "Intermediate Goods and Weak Links in the Theory of Economic Development" American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 3:1-28.
Jones, Charles I. 2011. "Misallocation, Input-Output Economics, and Economic Growth" unpublished paper.
November 3 (PK)
* (Neryvia) Schmitz, James A. Jr. 2005. "What Determines Labor Productivity? Lessons From the Dramatic Recovery of the U.S. and Canadian Iron-Ore Industries Since Their Early 1980s Crisis" Journal of Political Economy 113: 582-625.
* Nick Bloom, Benn Eifert, David McKenzie, Aprajit Mahajan and John Roberts 2010. "Does Management Matter: Evidence from India" unpublished paper.
November 8 (CJ)
Hall, Robert E. and Jones, Charles I. 2007. "The Value of Life and the Rise in Health Spending" Quarterly Journal of Economics 122: 39-72.
Jones, Charles I. 2011. "Life and Growth" unpublished paper.
November 10 (PK)
* (Teng) Todd Schoellman 2011. "Education Quality and Development Accounting" forthcoming in the Review of Economic Studies.
Erosa, Andres, Tatyana Koreshkova, and Diego Restuccia 2009. "How Important is Human Capital? A Quantitative Theory Assessment of World Income Inequality" Review of Economic Studies 77: 1421-1449.
November 15 (CJ)
* Greenwood, Jeremy, Zvi Hercowitz, and Per Krusell 1997. "Long-Run Implications of Investment-Specific Technological Change" American Economic Review 87: 342-362.
* (Michael) Whelan, Karl 2003. "A Two-Sector Approach to Modeling U.S. NIPA Data" Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 35: 627-656.
November 17 (PK)
* (Yiqing) Buera, Francisco J., Alexander Monge-Naranjo, and Giorgio E. Primiceri 2011. "Learning the Wealth of Nations" Econometrica 79: 1-45.
* Foster, Lucia, John Haltiwanger, and Chad Syverson 2008. "Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?" American Economic Review 98 (March): 394-425.
November 22, 24 -- Thanksgiving Break
November 29 (CJ)
Acemoglu, Daron. 2009. Chapter 22, “Institutions, Political Economy, and Growth” from Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. (We do not have an electronic copy of this chapter.)
December 1 (PK)
Melitz, Marc 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity" Econometrica 71: 1695-1725.
Highlights from follow-up work, such as: Atkeson, Andrew and Ariel Burstein 2010. "Innovation, Firm Dynamics, and International Trade" Journal of Political Economy 118: 433-484.
December 6, 8 -- Research Proposals
Student presentations.