ABSTRACT
Let me begin by asking the most awkward question one could ask of an aggregative model of the kind outlined above: how seriously should we take it? It hardly needs saying that it need not be taken too literally. The usefulness of a model of this kind lies partly in its ability to bring to attention certain aspects of the process of economic growth that are important in our view but remain underemphasized in the discussion on the subject. A stylized model is a suitable vehicle for explaining how such omissions may be misleading. At the same time, the usefulness of the model is also to be judged by its own omissions, i.e. what is left out of the model, deliberately or otherwise.
