The last 50 years in growth theory and the next 10

This article offers a personal view of the main achievements of (broadly) neoclassical growth theory, along with a few of the important gaps that remain. It discusses briefly the pluses and minuses of two major recent lines of research: endogenous growth theory and the drawing of causal inferences from international cross-sections, and criticizes the widespread contemporary tendency to convert the normative Ramsey model into a positive representative-agent macroeconomic model applying at all frequencies. Finally, it comments on the articles appearing in this symposium. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press