Acemoglu (2013, 170) makes a strong case for changing content: “The thesis of this article is that the amount of time spent teaching growth and development at the undergraduate level should be increased, both because it is of interest to students and because there is lots of exciting research going on in the area that is teachable to undergraduates, unlike research in many other areas of economics.” MaddisonData.xls provides a convenient, low-cost way to enact this change.

Basic economic growth literacy about the world and individual countries can be quickly and interestingly conveyed with MaddisonData.xls. This workbook can be used to enhance a lecture or tasks can be assigned as homework or in a lab setting (see Barreto and Widdows 2010 for an economic growth lab). Your students will master fundamental mathematical tools and gain an appreciation of how economists routinely use growth rates and log scales. Perhaps more importantly, you can forcefully, visually show how modern economic growth exploded on the scene just a few centuries ago as the market system evolved.

Lost in this exciting story is the distribution of output. By dividing real GDP by population, we implicitly convey the impression that individuals receive average shares of output, and this is patently false. Perhaps the best example of this is Equatorial Guinea: it boasts the highest growth in per capita real GDP from 1950 to 2008 in the data set (chart it in class from the Compare sheet to raise a few eyebrows), but the oil revenue that drives this growth is concentrated in a few hands. We need theory about and data on the distribution of output. This needs to be said, but it remains true that fast growth will solve many distribution issues.

If you insist that distribution must be included in any discussion of growth (a perfectly valid position), Piketty (2014) is an excellent, accessible, data-driven resource.