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April 02, 2008
Mathematica demonstrations are a real teaching timesaver
Office hours today: A student had a question about the golden rule saving rate in the Solow growth model. No problem. Bring up the Mathematica demonstration on the Solow model. Use the sliders to show how changing the saving rate causes consumption on the balanced growth path to rise or fall. The concept was effectively communicated faster than I could have stood up, found a dry erase marker, and started to sketch out the model on the whiteboard in my office.
If you teach the Solow model, you really should check it out.
Posted by William Polley at April 2, 2008 02:26 PM
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Comments
The question is, "Why teach the Solow growth model?"
Posted by: EclectEcon at April 2, 2008 03:02 PM
Same reason we teach the Ricardian model of comparative advantage.
Even though it oversimplifies reality to nearly the point of absurdity, it contains many useful insights that are vital to understanding more sophisticated models and policy discussions.
It introduces a way of organizing one's thinking about the topic at hand. (Growth accounting, in Solow's case... a very important concept.)
It is a touchstone in the literature for an entire field. One cannot be considered to be educated in that field without an understanding of it.
It can be augmented and extended fairly easily to obtain more interesting and potentially useful results.
Despite all that, we know that it is a bit too simple to be the only tool in our arsenal. Indeed, to use it as the only tool in our arsenal would be dangerous.
Would not each of these statement apply to the Ricardian model as well as the Solow model? (Readers are invited to suggest others.)
Posted by: William Polley at April 2, 2008 03:51 PM