IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v46y2014i2p179-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Initial human capital or the rule of law: what matters for the income convergence of poor countries?

Author

Listed:
  • Faiza Azhar Khan
  • John Hudson

Abstract

The article analyses conditional β -convergence among the low income countries using a panel data framework covering the period 1960 to 2008. The estimation of conditional income convergence is based on the augmented Solow model with system GMM technique for the dynamic panel data. More importantly, the article assesses the role of initial human capital stock and the rule of law in the income convergence of poor countries by considering further categorizations of the poor countries based on these two variables. This is the first study on the comparative properties of human capital and the rule of law in the income convergence of poor countries utilizing a dynamic panel framework. The full sample of low income countries does not show any evidence of conditional income convergence. The categorizations on the basis of initial human capital stock do not alter the conclusion of no income convergence. However, the subsample of low income countries with a better rule of law exhibits positive evidence of convergence towards the steady states. The article concludes that there exists a greater role of the rule of law, than initial human capital stock, in the income convergence of poor countries and vice versa for the high and middle income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Faiza Azhar Khan & John Hudson, 2014. "Initial human capital or the rule of law: what matters for the income convergence of poor countries?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 179-189, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:46:y:2014:i:2:p:179-189
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2013.831172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2013.831172
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2013.831172?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Barro, 1998. "Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262522543, December.
    2. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, 2004. "In Defense of Globalization: It Has a Human Face," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 94(6), pages 9-20, November-.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Di Vita, Giuseppe & Di Vita, Fabio & Cafiso, Gianluca, 2019. "The economic impact of legislation and litigation on growth: a historical analysis of Italy from its unification to World War II," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 121-141, February.
    2. Na Zhang & Chao Sun & Min Xu & Xuemei Wang & Jia Deng, 2023. "Catching Up of Latecomer Economies in ICT for Sustainable Development: An Analysis Based on Technology Life Cycle Using Patent Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-29, June.
    3. Hübler, Michael, 2017. "The inequality-emissions nexus in the context of trade and development: A quantile regression approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 174-185.
    4. Glawe, Linda & Wagner, Helmut, 2022. "Is schooling the same as learning? – The impact of the learning-adjusted years of schooling on growth in a dynamic panel data framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rana Hasan & Devashish Mitra & Mehmet Ulubasoglu, 2007. "Institutions and Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction: The Role of Private Sector Development," Asian Development Review (ADR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(01), pages 69-116.
    2. Hammudeh, Shawkat & Sohag, Kazi & Husain, Shaiara & Husain, Humaira & Said, Jamaliah, 2020. "Nonlinear relationship between economic growth and nuances of globalisation with income stratification: Roles of financial development and governance," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    3. Jason Sorens, 2009. "Development and the Political Economy of Foreign Aid," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 24(Spring 20), pages 87-100.
    4. Mohammad Zulfan Tadjoeddin, 2012. "Electoral conflict and the maturity of local democracy in Indonesia: testing the modernisation hypothesis," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 476-497.
    5. Eicher, Theo S. & Schreiber, Till, 2010. "Structural policies and growth: Time series evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 169-179, January.
    6. Kemptner, Daniel & Tolan, Songül, 2018. "The role of time preferences in educational decision making," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 25-39.
    7. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    8. Attwood, Donald W., 2005. "Big is ugly? How large-scale institutions prevent famines in Western India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2067-2083, December.
    9. Lewkowicz, Jacek & Woźniak, Michał & Wrzesiński, Michał, 2022. "COVID-19 and erosion of democracy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    10. Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & Luis E. Arango & Oscar Iván Ávila-Montealegre & Jhorland Ayala-García & Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía & Jesús Alonso Botero-García & Carolina Crispin-Fory & Manuela Cardona & Daniel, 2023. "Aspectos financieros y fiscales del sistema de salud en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, issue 106, pages 1-92, October.
    11. Md. Sharif Hossain & Md. Thasinul Abedin, 2016. "Multivariate Dynamic Co-integration and Causality Analysis between Inflation and its Determinants," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 8(5), pages 240-250.
    12. Aysit Tansel & Nil Demet Güngör, 2016. "Gender Effects of Education on Economic Development in Turkey," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nadereh Chamlou & Massoud Karshenas (ed.), Women, Work and Welfare in the Middle East and North Africa The Role of Socio-demographics, Entrepreneurship and Public Policies, chapter 3, pages 57-86, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    13. Kosack, Stephen, 2003. "Effective Aid: How Democracy Allows Development Aid to Improve the Quality of Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-22, January.
    14. Phillip LeBel, 2008. "Managing Risk in Africa Through Institutional Reform," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 36(2), pages 165-181, June.
    15. Tausch, Arno, 2018. "The return of religious Antisemitism? The evidence from World Values Survey data," MPRA Paper 90093, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Antonio Ciccone & Marek Jarociński, 2010. "Determinants of Economic Growth: Will Data Tell?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 222-246, October.
    17. Christopher F Baum & Mustafa Caglayan & Bing Xu, 2017. "The Impact of Uncertainty on Financial Institutions," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 939, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 20 Sep 2018.
    18. Berkowitz, Daniel & DeJong, David N., 2002. "Accounting for growth in post-Soviet Russia," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 221-239, March.
    19. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Xiaokai Yang & Dingsheng Zhang, 1999. "Trade Pattern and Economic Development when Endogenous and Exogenous Comparative Advantages Coexist," CID Working Papers 03A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    20. Fabio Sabatini, 2006. "Social Capital and Labour Productivity in Italy," Working Papers 2006.30, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:46:y:2014:i:2:p:179-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.