Acemoglu on growth

The "Epilogue: Mechanics and Causes of Economic Growth" from Introduction to Modern Economic Growth by Daron Acemoglu is available as a pdf file here.

He gives a brief discussion of what you hopefully will have learned from the models in his book and how they offer a useful perspective on world growth and cross-country income differences. He then provides a quick overview of some of the many remaining questions.

There is an interesting section on "A Possible Perspective on Growth and Stagnation over the Past 200 Years" in which Acemoglu gives some tentative answers to three questions:

1. Why did the world economy not experience sustained growth before 1800?
2. Why did economic takeoff start around 1800 and in Western Europe?
3. Why did some societies manage to benefit from the new technologies and organizational forms that emerged starting in 1800, while others steadfastly refused or failed to do so?

All good stuff.