Introduction

Inquiries into the “Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (Smith, 1776) are as old as the history of economic thought. Periodically, interest revives for the questions why some countries are poor and others rich, some industrialize and others remain agricultural, and why some countries have high growth rates of GDP while others experience even a decline. The last wave of research, which is by now well known under the heading “New Growth Theory” (NGT), began with work of Romer (1986) and Lucas (1988). It finished a period of tacit consensus among economists that problems of developing countries are dealt with in the field of development economics while growth theory, if it has any relevance at all, is only applicable to growth behavior of modern, industrialized economies. Since then, economists are again on the search for a single theory explaining growth and development of rich and poor countries alike.