Preliminaries

Abstract

Some of the basic issues which are important to the analysis of growth in DCs are discussed within this chapter. First, the empirical regularities of aggregate economic growth in DCs are summarised. For this purpose, a list of stylised facts is set up in Section 2.1, which mainly applies to the lower range of per capita income. Second, because the process of growth in DCs can be regarded as an object of investigation of development economics as well as growth theory, the relation between both fields of economics is clarified shortly in Section 2.2. Third, Section 2.3 presents an exposition of the main methodological foundations. The basic concepts, which are either implicitly or explicitly employed within the frame of dynamic macroeco-nomic theory, are presented in Section 2.3.1. Furthermore, modern growth theory can be regarded as a part of the neoclassical research programme, which is discussed in its essential features in Section 2.3.2. Finally, Section 2.3.3 concludes with the exposition of critical rationalism and stresses the demand for empirically refutable hypotheses as a result of theoretical analyses.