Although economic growth is amongst the oldest of debates in Economics, there has been little advancement in growth theory since the classic works of Solow. As such, clear-cut answers to the context-specific determinants of growth, especially for developing countries, are rare. Bridging the Gap Between Growth Theory and Policy in Asia: An Extension of the Solow Growth Model adds to the works of Solow by showing how his original model can be extended and used for policy, discussing issues in growth econometrics, including the theoretical underpinnings of growth models, and some of the important challenges in empirical studies on economic growth. This simpler manual will be highly useful for applied economists, policy makers, and graduate students.

This book shows that time series methods are useful in developing structural models for policy and forecasting. It aims to show that alternative techniques such as JML and GETS are highly useful. The general to specific methodology, applied in searching for the dynamic lag structure, adequately captures the dynamics of the equations. It also shows that the two widely used time series methods, GETS and JML produce close estimates of cointegrating coefficients and, therefore, are equally useful. Further, it is noted that alternative econometric methods, if carefully used, are likely to give similar results. The work shows that it is pointless to endlessly argue that one technique is superior to another. The work guides applied researchers in developing large-scale policy models.