Managing Growth in Miniature
Solow's Model as an Artifact

An accessible and contextualized history of the famed 'Solow model' and the knowledge that shaped our notion of 'economic growth'.

Verena Halsmayer (Author)

9781316515181, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 November 2024

292 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

'Because it is grounded in an epistemology of scientific models, 'Managing Growth in Miniature' is among the most useful of the countless books on economic growth. Halsmayer's archival materials document economists' efforts to make sense of their own modeling practice as it came into being. The technical details will satisfy practitioners without intimidating nonspecialists. The prose is clear and engaging.' Max Ehrenfreund, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society

Managing Growth in Miniature explores the history of the way economists think about growth. It focuses on the period between the 1930s and 1960s, tracing the development of the famed 'Solow growth model,' one of the central mathematical models in postwar economics. It argues that models are not simply 'efficient tools' providing answers to the problems of economic theory and governance. The Solow model's various uses and interpretations related not only to the ways it made things (in)visible, excluded questions, and suggested actions. Its 'success' and effects ultimately also pertained to its fundamental ambiguities. Attending to the concrete sides of economic abstractions, this book provides a richly layered and accessible account of the forms of knowledge that shaped the predominant notion of 'economic growth' and ideas of how to govern it.

Introduction
1. The artifact and the experimental report
2. The problematic of growth and productivity
3. Modeling the economic system
4. Growth en miniature
5. Model talk
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]