EH.N: ANN: Ph.D. Course on Unified Growth Theory by Professor Oded Galor

[Jacob Weisdorf]

Ph.D. Course:

Unified Growth Theory by Professor Oded Galor
June 11-13, 2008
University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics

Unified Growth Theory is designed to capture the complexity of the 
process of economic and demographic growth and development over the 
course of the entire human history. The evolution of economies during 
the majority of human history was marked by Malthusian stagnation. 
Technological progress and population growth were miniscule by modern 
standards and the average growth rate of income per capita in various 
regions of the world was even slower due to the offsetting effect of 
population growth on the expansion of resources per capita. In the 
past two centuries, in contrast, the pace of technological progress 
increased significantly in association with the process of 
industrialization. Various regions of the world departed from the 
Malthusian trap and experienced initially a considerable rise in the 
growth rates of income per capita and population. Unlike episodes of 
technological progress in the pre-Industrial Revolution era that 
failed to generate sustained economic growth, the increasing role of 
human capital in the production process in the second phase of 
industrialization ultimately prompted a demographic transition, 
liberating the gains in productivity from the counterbalancing 
effects of population growth. The decline in the growth rate of 
population and the associated enhancement of technological progress 
and human capital formation paved the way for the emergence of the 
modern state of sustained economic growth.

Inspirational reading:

Galor, Oded (2005), "From Stagnation to Growth: Unified Growth 
Theory,"in Handbook of Economic Growth, pp. 171-293. 
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3D562085>

The lecturer:

Oded Galor is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the 
editor of the Journal of Economic Growth.

Practical information:

The course starts Wednesday June 11 and ends Friday June 13, 2008, 
and has two lectures each day (10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon and 2:00 p.m. 
- 3:30 pm). The venue is University of Copenhagen, Studiestraede 6, 
1455 Copenhagen, Denmark.

You can register by contacting local organizer Jacob Weisdorf 
(e-mail: jacob.weisdorf at econ.ku.dk). Please note that PhD students 
coming from non-Danish universities will be asked to pay a 
participation fee of 100 euro. The deadline for registration is May 
1st, 2008.