Robert Solow

Capital accumulation alone cannot explain growth; it's the residual that does.

Economists should be humble; reality is messy.

The productivity slowdown is the puzzle of our time.

Freedom to innovate is the engine of progress.

I prefer models that are simple and wrong to those that are complicated and right.

The role of government is to provide the public goods that markets can't.

Growth is not just numbers; it's human flourishing.

The Solow residual is the measure of our ignorance.

In economics, as in life, timing is everything.

Depression is a policy failure.

The best theories are those that survive falsification.

Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials: much to live on and much to live for.

Technological change is exogenous in my model, but endogenous in reality.

Economics is the science of scarcity, but abundance is the goal.

Jokes about economists are the only ones that work on compound interest.

Sustainable growth requires environmental stewardship.

The past teaches us that progress is possible.

In the end, it's the ideas that last, not the equations.

Policy without theory is blind; theory without policy is lame.

Laughter is the best investment with infinite returns.