Western Europe experienced a Golden Age of economic growth from the early 1950s to the early 1970s during which the average rate of growth of real GDP per person was just over 4 per cent per year. When viewed through the lens of growth accounting the fast growth of the Golden Age was based on...

This paper reviews the experience of economic growth during the twentieth century with a view to highlighting implications for both growth economists and policy-makers. The unprecedented divergence in income levels between the OECD economies and many developing countries is documented but so too...