Studying Economic Growth: An Avenue for Enhancing Student Empirical Skills

The study of economic growth provides an opportunity for students to exercise their empirical skills, reinforcing the tool building that occurs in statistics and math courses. Descriptive analysis allows lower level students to develop their ability to work with data as they examine how fast the economy has grown, ascertain the regularity versus irregularity of this growth, test whether the U.S. economy is slowing down, and perform simple extrapolation forecasts. Explanatory analysis allows higher level students in macro and econometric courses to see how theory and empirics can complement each other, and see why econometric issues matter, as they seek estimates for parameters consistent with the theory. The activities presented here may be of interest to those seeking to enhance the teaching of analytical skills “across the curriculum.”