Endogenous Growth Theory

Rating:
Summary: One of the principal books about the modern economic growth
Review: "Endogenous Growth Theory" by Philippe Aghion and Peter W. Howitt is one of the best book about economic growth theory who I've seen. This book together with "Advanced Macroeconomics" by David Romer and "Economic Growth" by Robert Barro and Xavier Sala-I-Martin are the principal books about all the modern economic growth theory. I recommend very much this book.

Rating:
Summary: One of the principal books about the modern economic growth
Review: "Endogenous Growth Theory" by Philippe Aghion and Peter W. Howitt is one of the best book about economic growth theory who I've seen. This book together with "Advanced Macroeconomics" by David Romer and "Economic Growth" by Robert Barro and Xavier Sala-I-Martin are the principal books about all the modern economic growth theory. I recommend very much this book.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive
Review: An intermediate-to-advanced updated text in this specialized branch of growth economics. A nice follow-through if you have already read something like Barro & Sala-i-Martin's book. Fully packed with exercises and thier results explained! Complete bibliography. in short, a must.

Rating:
Summary: not quite a textbook
Review: This book is a treatise of the most recent works in endogenous growth theory, and so it may be inappropriate to be used as a textbook for a course. Although the exercises are explained, it seems that this book cannot be feasibly used for self-study because, as the reviewer below me pointed out, you need someone to fill in the gaps. Nevertheless, the authors do a great job in explaining the intuition behind the difficult technical papers that make up this book. I think this book would be useful for those masters/doctoral students who are preparing/writing their thesis. The explanations and the bibliography can guide them and enable them to get many ideas for their paper.

Rating:
Summary: not quite a textbook
Review: This book is a treatise of the most recent works in endogenous growth theory, and so it may be inappropriate to be used as a textbook for a course. Although the exercises are explained, it seems that this book cannot be feasibly used for self-study because, as the reviewer below me pointed out, you need someone to fill in the gaps. Nevertheless, the authors do a great job in explaining the intuition behind the difficult technical papers that make up this book. I think this book would be useful for those masters/doctoral students who are preparing/writing their thesis. The explanations and the bibliography can guide them and enable them to get many ideas for their paper.

Rating:
Summary: an Intuitive book
Review: This book presents a series of advanced growth models with optimal level of mathematics and intuition.

Rating:
Summary: Good theory, Poor presentation
Review: To read this book effectively, you really need to have the articles that the authors cited in the book, especially their own articles.
The ideas from the book are excellent. However, the presentation of the is extremely bad. I am not saying for just myself. Many of my professors and my peers also agree.
The authors skipped a lot on the derivation of the equations without mentioning where they came from, or without even defining some terminologies. Sometime, you will get really frustrated.

I prefer to learn not just the ideas but also the technical foundations. Barro and Xala-i Martin's book on Growth is excellent in this. It is impossible to learn that in this book. Sorry, the book is a failure!!!
I talked to my friends in other schools in Cambridge. They were surprised because Aghion is supposed to be a very careful professor. I don't know. But I have attended a conference and seen how Howitt presented. It is a big, really big, conference, and the guy just wrote down those equations and calculations by hand. They are even not neat.
The exercises are interesting and helpful if you want to master the tricks. However, again, you need to read the articles that they used since many steps will be skipped carelessly.