IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-19-00728.html

Convergence or confusion? A study of world economic growth

Author

Listed:
  • Keunkwan Ryu

    (Seoul National University)

  • Yong Yoon

    (Chulalongkorn University)

Abstract

This paper takes a closer look at the typical growth convergence regression of Barro (1991), Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992), Sala-i-Martin (1996), and others. By interpreting the two components of the regression coefï¬ cient separately, i.e. the correlation coefficient and the ratio of standard deviations, we distinguish between "time-series" convergence and "cross-section" convergence, and consequently the relationship between β− and σ−convergence. And, using data from the latest Penn World Table database (version 9.1), we investigate the convergence or the lack-of-convergence in samples of countries representing the “World†, OECD and Sub-Saharan Africa. The implications of this study for the neoclassical growth model are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Keunkwan Ryu & Yong Yoon, 2020. "Convergence or confusion? A study of world economic growth," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2819-2827.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-00728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2020/Volume40/EB-20-V40-I4-P246.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrade, Eduardo & Laurini, Marcio & Madalozzo, Regina & Valls Pereira, Pedro L., 2004. "Convergence clubs among Brazilian municipalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 179-184, May.
    2. Walheer, Barnabé, 2016. "Growth and convergence of the OECD countries: A multi-sector production-frontier approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 665-675.
    3. Paul Johnson & Chris Papageorgiou, 2020. "What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 129-175, March.
    4. G. E. Boyle & T. G. McCARTHY, 1999. "Simple measures of convergence in per capita GDP: a note on some further international evidence," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(6), pages 343-347.
    5. Friedman, Milton, 1992. "Do Old Fallacies Ever Die?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 2129-2132, December.
    6. Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), 2005. "Handbook of Economic Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Laurini, Márcio P., 2007. "A note on the use of quantile regression in beta convergence analysis," Insper Working Papers wpe_95, Insper Working Paper, Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa.
    2. Amendola, Marco, 2025. "Does economic convergence diverge along the income distribution? Evidence from a decile-based analysis," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    3. Marcio Laurini, 2007. "A note on the use of quantile regression in beta convergence analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(52), pages 1-8.
    4. Guilherme Resende & Alexandre Carvalho & Patrícia Sakowski & Túlio Cravo, 2016. "Evaluating multiple spatial dimensions of economic growth in Brazil using spatial panel data models," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 1-31, January.
    5. Haupt, Harry & Schnurbus, Joachim & Semmler, Willi, 2018. "Estimation of grouped, time-varying convergence in economic growth," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 141-158.
    6. Steven Deller & Judith I. Stallmann & Lindsay Amiel, 2012. "The Impact of State and Local Tax and Expenditure Limitations on State Economic Growth," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 56-84, March.
    7. Andrea Bonilla BOLAÑOS, 2017. "Are South American Countries Really Converging?: The Influence of the Region's Integration Projects," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 130-149, September.
    8. Iulia Andreea Bucur, 2012. "National And Regional Coordinates Of The Real Convergence Process Intensity In The Enlarged European Union," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 4(3), pages 274-287, September.
    9. Steven N. Durlauf & Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan, 2008. "Empirics of Growth and Development," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Jaime Ros (ed.), International Handbook of Development Economics, Volumes 1 & 2, volume 0, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Rivadeneira Alex, 2023. "Unconditional Convergence in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector (1988-2018)," Working Papers 2023-06, Banco de México.
    11. Kadigi, Reuben M.J. & Robinson, Elizabeth & Szabo, Sylvia & Kangile, Joseph & Mgeni, Charles P. & De Maria, Marcello & Tsusaka, Takuji & Nhau, Brighton, 2022. "Revisiting the Solow-Swan model of income convergence in the context of coffee producing and re-exporting countries in the world," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115636, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Peter Gripaios & Paul Bishop & Sarah Keast, 2000. "Differences in GDP per head in GB counties: some suggested explanations," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 1161-1167.
    13. Carlos Mendez, 2019. "Lack of Global Convergence and the Formation of Multiple Welfare Clubs across Countries: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-17, July.
    14. Paul Johnson & Chris Papageorgiou, 2020. "What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 129-175, March.
    15. Stefano Magrini, 2007. "Analysing Convergence through the Distribution Dynamics Approach: Why and how?," Working Papers 2007_13, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    16. Kenneth G. Stewart & Michael C. Webb, 2003. "Capital Taxation, Globalization, and International Tax Competition," Econometrics Working Papers 0301, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    17. Paul A. Johnson, 2020. "Parameter variation in the 'log t' convergence test," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(9), pages 736-739, May.
    18. Katsuyuki Shibayama, 2018. "A Simple Model of Growth Slowdown," Studies in Economics 1813, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    19. Imam Patrick Amir & Kpodar Kangni, 2021. "Does an Inclusive Citizenship Law Promote Economic Development?," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 35-69, March.
    20. Josip Tica & Viktor Viljevac & Matija Matiæ, 2023. "Employment rate and economic growth:The case of transition countries," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 41(1), pages 9-39.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-00728. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.