Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149721 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
CHOPE Working Paper No. 2014-09
Publisher: 
Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC
Abstract: 
Combining concrete policy-oriented modeling strategies of World War II with what was received as traditional neoclassical theory, in 1956 Robert Solow constructed a simple, clean, and smooth-functioning "design" model that served many different purposes. As a working object it enabled experimentation with long-run equilibrium growth. As an instrument of measurement it was applied to time series data. As a prototype it was supposed to feed into larger-scale econometric models that were, in turn, thought of as technologies for policy advice. Used as a teaching device, Solow's design became a medium of "spreading the technique," and one of the symbols for neoclassical macroeconomics that soon became associated with MIT.
Subjects: 
model
modeling
Robert Solow
growth theory
growth
neoclassical growth model
linear programming
dynamic programming
design model
Harvard Economic Research Project
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JEL: 
B22
B23
B31
B40
O4
Z1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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