Note: This is post #80 in a weekly video series on basic economics.

The Solow model was named after Robert Solow, the 1987 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Among other things, the Solow model helps us understand the nuances and dynamics of growth, says Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution University. The model also lets us distinguish between two types of growth: catching up growth and cutting edge growth. As you’ll soon see in this video, a country can grow much faster when it’s catching up, as opposed to when it’s already growing at the cutting edge.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Click here to see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series.