Symposium on Olson 1: Explaining Differences in State Growth: Catching up versus Olson

Explaining differences in rates of economic growth has been one of the main tasks of economics since before the time of Adam Smith. Given that rates of growth differ across nations, political subdivisions of nations, and geographical regions, there is much to explain. The explanations can be classified into two broad categories. The first category is growth accounting. Growth accounting studies focus on contributions to economic growth that can be measured directly. The most successful studies have followed a production function approach; Denison (1967, 1985) and others have measured...