We propose a Unified Growth model that analyzes the role of the Scienti fic Revolution in the takeoff to sustained modern economic growth. Basic scientific knowledge is a necessary input in the production of applied knowledge, which, in turn, fuels productivity growth and leads to rising...

Are improvements in growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since the mid-1990s sustainable? What types of growth strategies contribute the most to reducing poverty? This paper examines these questions in four stages. First, it explores the factors contributing to the post-1995 improvement in growth....

The authors study the sources and pattern of China's impressive economic growth over the past 25 years and show that key issues currently of concern to policymakers - widening inequality, rural poverty, and resource intensity - are to a large extent rooted in China's growth strategy, and...

The economic expansion witnessed in the last 0,08% of modern human history is an anomalous event. It has been compared to a "rocket ship that took off five seconds ago, and nobody knows where it's going." This paper explores the destiny of this rocket ship. It shows that economic growth cannot...

The Degrowth Movement calls for "degrowth" - a reduction in GDP in advanced economies - to avert an ecological crisis. This paper argues that the Degrowth Movement misses that the West is already in a state resembling degrowth - a Great Stagnation. This state of degrowth and its correlates,...

For effective mitigation of the current severe economic crisis, developing countries can seize real opportunities for cleaner growth, including low-carbon growth. While complex and long, the process of greening economies can and should be gradually piloted towards selected “poles of clean...

We analyze the role of the Scientific Revolution in the takeoff to sustained economic growth. Basic scientific knowledge is a necessary input in the production of applied knowledge, which, in turn, fuels productivity growth and leads to rising incomes. Subsequently, rising incomes instigate a...

Population growth has two potentially counteracting effects on pollution emissions:(i) more people implies more production and thereby more emissions, and (ii) more people implies a larger research capacity which might reduce the emission intensity of production, depending on the direction of...