ECON 395
Growth and Sustainability Fall 2009
Division II Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

The question to be addressed in this class is whether material living standards can continue to rise indefinitely: is “sustainable growth” possible, or is the world doomed to stagnation–or eventual collapse–by limited resources, population pressures and pollution? The readings will include the views of pessimists, such as Malthus and Diamond, as well as those of optimists, such as Simon and Nordhaus. Because growth and the allocation of resources are central to the study of economics, we will confront the question of sustainability with the tools of microeconomics and growth theory, extending standard economic models to address the challenges posed by population growth, resource use, and pollution.