Economic Growth (3rd Edition)

For what it is, this book is well written and very readable. It does an excellent job of condensing economic growth theory into an understandable textbook. However, it is missing a lot of nuance (and no endogenous growth theory!?). For a more complete perspective on development and growth economics, I'd recommend taking a look at a nuber of outside resources, such as "Poor Economics".

Good overview of the subject matter.

Always great books! Especially for may daughter who enjoys every Economics book!

Book was easy to rent and easy to return

Weil’s presentation of the subject of economic growth follows a good compromise between empirical evidence and theoretical insights that keep the reader engaged in the subject, while providing good prose throughout the text that keep the material engaging and relevant. I have read the book cover to cover, and I found it very comprehensive, while allowing space to the instructor to bring his/her own insights to the classroom. I use it as an anchor to guide the student’s journey of understanding growth and development in one semester. This book makes that journey plausible, at least for committed students.A useful feature of the book are the very interesting boxes of content that do help the student to understand the subjects deeper. They do motivate well the content with historical episodes, quantitative tools, news coverage and sometimes even book reviews to cover some debates. Perhaps the strongest element of the book is the clarity of the exposition of economic mechanisms and the mapping of these concepts to both graphs and data (in graphs as well when possible) to illustrate a concept. Every aspiring economist should have a proper training in the art of graph reading, and this book is a good place to deploy this art for understanding growth and development.As an economist, I have a limited domain of expertise, and some of that domain is covered in this book. I find reassuring that the expositions of the topics that overlap with my expertise is well tailored to the pedagogical aspirations of the book, making justice to the seminal work on the subject while acknowledging the breath of the literature still uncovered in each chapter. This alone persuades me that the author spend an incredible amount of time and effort in delivering this great book for professors and students alike.

I read this book to get an overview of the topic (rather than as part of a course), and thought it was excellent.If you are looking for a modern overview of economic growth, then perhaps the most important feature to consider is the technical level of the book. Weil's book is in the middle when it comes to the technical level, and is appropriate for people who already know at least a little bit of economics (e.g. supply & demand) and are comfortable with basic algebra (but not necessarily calculus, which only ever shows up in a handful of Weil's footnotes).For those who want the least technical books, there are popular titles like " The Next Convergence " (by Spence) and " Why Nations Fail " (by Acemoglu & Robinson). These are written for a general audience and will involve no math and relatively few charts or graphs. They're easier to read than the more technical books listed below, but they also give a less complete picture of the field.For those who want the most technical books, there are PhD-oriented texts like " Introduction to Modern Economic Growth " (also by Acemoglu) or " The Economics of Growth " (by Aghion & Howitt). These books have lots and lots of math and are well suited to people who want to be able to read or write growth papers on the research frontier, but you probably want to keep away from them unless you've already got a bit of experience working through calculus-laden econ texts.Weil's book lies between these extremes, and I'd recommend it for anyone who wants some detail about the most important topics in economic growth without getting too bogged down. So what are these topics? Weil covers: capital accumulation, demographics, education, productivity, technology, efficiency, trade, government, inequality, culture, geography and natural resources, with at least a chapter for each (17 chapters total). Every chapter is full of good data, simple models, and clear explanations. It's exactly what a good undergraduate economics text should be, and it's probably the text I would use if I taught an undergraduate course in economic growth.

this book sounds very interesting. easy to read and the author has provided examples. I'm looking forward to reading it this semester

Used this textbook for an undergraduate growth theory course. Every chapter was concise, informative and pleasant to read. Some of the mathematical derivations and formulas were hidden in footnotes, which I thought was quite unfortunate since they were very useful.

INCREDIBLE saved my life. Thank you David Weil!!!

great book tu understan economic grwth a bit deeper