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Introduction
"Is there some action a government of India could take that
would lead the Indian economy to grow like Indonesia's or Egypt's?
If so, what exactly? If not, what is it about the "nature
of India" that makes it so? The consequences for human
welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering:
Once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about
anything else. (Robert E. Lucas, Jr., Journal of Monetary
Economics, 1988).
The study of economic growth has, since about the mid-1980s,
experienced a resurgence in both theoretical and empirical work,
attempting to explain why some countries have experienced rapid
long-term growth rates in gross domestic product while others
have performed poorly in this regard. The area has been described
as "the part of macroeconomics that really matters" (Robert
J. Barro and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Economic Growth, 1995),
not least because relatively small differences in growth rates,
when cumulated over one or more generations, can have major
consequences for standards of living.
Several Otago researchers, both staff and postgraduate students,
are engaged in research which seeks to explain why economies
grow at such different rates.
Specific research projects include
Social capital, social divergence and economic performance
(Dr Stephen Knowles, Prof. Dorian Owen, Dr Quentin Grafton
(ANU), Paul Killerby)
The effect of gender gaps
in education and health on economic growth (Dr Stephen Knowles,
Prof. Dorian Owen, Dr Paula Lorgelly (Nottingham)
Inequality and economic growth (Dr Stephen Knowles). More
details of this project are given on Stephen's
web page
Balance-of-payments-constrained growth (Dr Alan King)
Government intervention, government expenditure (including
defence spending) and growth (Dr Robert Alexander, Dr Arlene
Garces, Dr Stephen Knowles)
Modelling economic growth using multi-country panel data
(Prof. Dorian Owen)
Total factor productivity in East Asian economies (Dr Arlene
Ozanne)
Frontier production function modelling and technical efficiency
(Dr Mohammad Jaforullah)
