Introduction to a General Equilibrium Approach to Economic Growth

Endogenous growth theory has had some success in explaining the observed data related to the process of economic growth. However, the results of the models in this literature are typically very sensitive to their micro-economic structure. It is therefore important to understand how the growth process behaves under more general specifications of such features as the number of commodities, the number and preferences of consumers, the factors of production, and the financial and information structures. In other words, valuable insights can be gained by integrating growth theory into the framework of general equilibrium theory. In summarizing the papers in this volume, I focus on seven issues that are crucial to this integration and I highlight the contributions of the papers to the resolution of these issues. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C61, D50, D90, F43, O41.