Endogenous growth : analytical review of its generating mechanisms

摘要

This paper consists of an analytical review of the most relevant endogenous growthmodels. The objective of this literature review is to discuss analytically and understand,in an integrated form, the main mechanisms, identified in the existing literature,that generate endogenous growth. Endogenous or new growth theory has, so far, produced three main types of mechanisms through which endogenous sustained positive economic growth is made possible.One strategy brings a theory of innovations or R&D into the growth model. Inthis type of model, endogenously determined technological progress is the engine ofeconomic growth. The second mechanism delivers sustained positive growth through the introductionof an endogenously determined accumulation of human capital. In this kind of model,the source of long-run per-capita growth is human capital accumulation.And a third way to obtain endogenous growth is simply to abandon one of thestandard assumptions of the neoclassical model, more precisely the assumption ofdiminishing returns to capital.