DP7519 2008 Lawrence R. Klein Lecture -- Comparative Economic Development: Insights from Unified Growth Theory

Author(s): Oded Galor

Publication Date: October 2009

Keyword(s): Comparative Development , Demographic Transition , Diversity , Globalization , Growth , Human Capital , Malthusian Stagnation , Technological Progress

JEL(s): F40 , J10 , J13 , N0 , O11 , O14 , O15 , O33 , O40

Programme Areas: International Macroeconomics

Initiatives: Economic History

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP7519.asp

This paper explores the implications of Unified Growth Theory for the origins of existing differences in income per capita across countries. The theory sheds light on three fundamental layers of comparative development. It identifies the factors that have governed the pace of the transition from stagnation to growth and have thus contributed to contemporary variation in economic development. It uncovers the forces that have sparked the emergence of multiple growth regimes and convergence clubs, and it underlines the persistent effects that variations in pre-historical biogeographical conditions have generated on the composition of human capital and economic development across the globe.