The report on visiting study experience in the U.S.A. ----Professor Chen Kunting

Center for Economic Research Shandong University

9/2007

As a exchange scholar, I went to economics faculty of Brown University in the USA and studied law-economics following a celebrated economist Professor Peter Howitt from September 2006 to September 2007. I will give an account on what I have learned and experienced as follows.

The courses I chose

I totally chose three courses concerning macroeconomics in two semesters, which were Professor Oded Galor’s Development Economics, Professor Peter Howit’s Advanced Macroeconomics, and Professor Devid Weil’s Front-line Macroeconomics.

Professor Oded Galor’s Development Economics is a course for postgraduates, and he taught the scientific system of Development Economics with the emphasis on the cultural difference between East and West, and on the economic growth analysis in the long run. Professor Oded Galor is the editor of the journal economic growth, who has contributed very much to the study on growth theory these years. A series of exploration achievements issued by Professor Oded Galor and Professor Devid Weil together on the basis of two-section model have been considered as the brand-new breakthrough in modern growth theory. Through this course I had a better understanding of current development of American economics, and fashionable but complicated two-section model. In addition, I have a deeper interpretation of neo-growth theory, and the economic development rules and trends in the industrial and post-industrial epoch.

Professor Peter Howit’s Advanced Macroeconomics is designed for doctors, mainly studying the front line and development of endogenous growth theory in the form of inviting good scholars to publicize their theses followed by discussing. Before the speech, professor handed out the materials on his thesis to the students for reading and thinking. And students are required to raise questions on all the materials and tell the speaker before the lecture, and then the professor will send all the questions to the author. When the speech begins, the professor will spend 45 minutes introducing the theme, the train of thought, methods and conclusion of the thesis, and then it is the time for the author to answer the questions posed by audience and for discussion, by which they can communicate with one another and stimulate each other’ thought. There were 20 essays publicized in the course involving a variety of fields with typical economic study methods such as metrics and experiments.

Professor Devid Weil’s Front-line Macroeconomics is another doctorate course without teaching materials. He just selected some front-line papers to teach and changed the topic in two weeks. And he paid more attention to the application of methods and tools, which is helpful for the students to broaden their vision and fix their topics of dissertations.

The meetings and academic activities I attended

Besides having the above courses, I took part in a few small-scaled comprehensive seminars and academic meetings on different directions per week.

A series of seminars on sociol