Title: Economic Growth: Unleashing the Potential of Human Flourishing
Abstract: Why are some countries rich and others poor? How does prosperity happen? Are there ways to improve the plight of the poorest people in our world today? Nobel laureate Robert Lucas (1988, p.5) famously stated that once one starts thinking about issues such as these, “it is hard to think about anything else.” Fortunately, for the non-expert as well as for the seasoned economist, this slim volume by Noell, Smith, and Webb is an excellent introduction to the nature and sources of economic growth. This book may introduce economists with other specialties to the modern understanding of economic growth, but it will truly hit its mark in the hands of a non-economist or a student in an introductory economics class. Indeed, I now use this book as a primary piece in the teaching of economic growth in my own principles-level classes. Economic Growth is part of a series of short books published under the aegis of the Values & Capitalism program at the American Enterprise Institute. These books, typically written by Christian economists and other social scientists, examine issues in economics and politics that lie at the nexus of markets and ethics. Economic Growth is one of the most essential in this excellent series of books, because it deals with the foundational question of where prosperity comes from. 1 The �耀rst chapter of Economic Growth nicely sets up the topic to be discussed. Early on, the authors point to data showing a sharp upturn in economic prosperity (as measured by GDP per capita) that began around 1800, with the greatest gains concentrated in Western Europe and the United States. After millennia of nearly static living standards around the world, the real GDP per capita in the United States increased more than twentyfold, and in Europe it grew more than tenfold. The world as a whole saw a fourfold increase. The authors use such data to argue that modern economic growth in the wealthiest parts of our world is the exception in human history rather than the norm, and they focus on how and why this exceptional state of being arose. Then they go one step further by making the case that economic growth is a moral goal. That is, the authors contend that economic growth facilitates creativity, stewardship, and moral behavior.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-03
Language: en
Type: book
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot