IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/apl/wpaper/05-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Evidence on the Convergence of International Income from a Group of 29 Countries

Author

Listed:
  • John W. Dawson
  • Amit Sen

Abstract

This paper updates and extends the time-series evidence on the convergence of international incomes using a set of 29 countries over the period 1900-2001. Time-series tests for stochastic convergence are supplemented with tests which provide evidence on the notion of Beta-convergence predicted by the Solow model. The evidence indicates that the relative income series of 21 countries are consistent with stochastic convergence, and that Beta-convergence has occurred in at least 17 countries at some point over the 1900-2001 period. Further examination of the properties of the Beta- convergence test provides anecdotal evidence of conditional convergence during the post-war period in seven countries for which the convergence hypothesis was initially rejected. Analysis of the cross-country dispersion of incomes over time also suggests that convergence has occurred over the 1900-2001 period, with structural breaks associated with World War II in many countries causing a break in the convergence process.

Suggested Citation

  • John W. Dawson & Amit Sen, 2005. "New Evidence on the Convergence of International Income from a Group of 29 Countries," Working Papers 05-22, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
  • Handle: RePEc:apl:wpaper:05-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp0522.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Loewy, Michael B. & Papell, David H., 1996. "Are U.S. regional incomes converging? Some further evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 587-598, December.
    2. Perron, Pierre & Vogelsang, Timothy J., "undated". "Level Shifts and Purchasing Power Parity," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics levshift, Boston College Department of Economics.
    3. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    4. Andy Neumeyer & Hugo Hopenhayn, 2004. "Latin America in the Twentieth Century: Stagnation, then Collapse," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 326, Econometric Society.
    5. Perron, Pierre, 1997. "Further evidence on breaking trend functions in macroeconomic variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 355-385, October.
    6. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    7. Ben-David, Dan, 1994. "Convergence Clubs and Diverging Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 922, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Strazicich, Mark C. & Lee, Junsoo & Day, Edward, 2004. "Are incomes converging among OECD countries? Time series evidence with two structural breaks," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 131-145, March.
    9. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    10. Timothy J. Vogelsang & Marc Tomljanovich, 2002. "Are U.S. regions converging? Using new econometric methods to examine old issues," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 49-62.
    11. Vogelsang, Timothy J & Perron, Pierre, 1998. "Additional Tests for a Unit Root Allowing for a Break in the Trend Function at an Unknown Time," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1073-1100, November.
    12. Sen, Amit, 2003. "On Unit-Root Tests When the Alternative Is a Trend-Break Stationary Process," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 21(1), pages 174-184, January.
    13. Banerjee, Anindya & Lumsdaine, Robin L & Stock, James H, 1992. "Recursive and Sequential Tests of the Unit-Root and Trend-Break Hypotheses: Theory and International Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(3), pages 271-287, July.
    14. Perron, Pierre, 1989. "The Great Crash, the Oil Price Shock, and the Unit Root Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1361-1401, November.
    15. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-run Data Show," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1072-1085, December.
    16. Michael L. Nieswiadomy & Mark C. Strazicich, 2004. "Are Political Freedoms Converging?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 323-340, April.
    17. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Empirics for economic growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1353-1375, June.
    18. Friedman, Milton, 1992. "Do Old Fallacies Ever Die?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(4), pages 2129-2132, December.
    19. Carlino, Gerald A. & Mills, Leonard O., 1993. "Are U.S. regional incomes converging? : A time series analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 335-346, November.
    20. Perron, Pierre & Vogelsang, Timothy J, 1992. "Nonstationarity and Level Shifts with an Application to Purchasing Power Parity," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(3), pages 301-320, July.
    21. Chris Murray & Eric Zivot, 1998. "Inference on Unit Roots and Trend Breaks in Macroeconomic Time Series," Working Papers UWEC-2005-04, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    22. Li, Qing & Papell, David, 1999. "Convergence of international output Time series evidence for 16 OECD countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 267-280, September.
    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. Serranito, Francisco, 2013. "Heterogeneous technology and the technological catching-up hypothesis: Theory and assessment in the case of MENA countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 685-697.
    2. Kozlova, Olesia & de Jesus Noguera, Jose, 2018. "Achievers or slackers? Per capita income trends in European countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1332-1345.
    3. Burcu Ozcan, 2014. "Does Income Converge among EU Member Countries following the Post-War Period? Evidence from the PANKPSS Test," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 22-38, October.
    4. Marine Hadengue & Thierry Warin, 2013. "Patterns of Specialization and (Un)conditional Convergence: The Cases of Brazil, China and India," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-17, CIRANO.
    5. 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.
    6. Hakan SARIBAŞ, 2016. "Ana Akım Büyüme Modeli ve Yakınsama Hipotezlerinin Analizi: Panel Veri Yaklaşımı," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 24(30).
    7. László KÓNYA, 2023. "Per Capita Income Convergence and Divergence of Selected OECD Countries to and from the US: A Reappraisal for the period 1900-2018," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 23(1), pages 33-56.
    8. Omid Ranjbar & Tsangyao Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee & Zahra (Mila) Elmi, 2016. "Reopening the Convergence Debate when Sharp Breaks and Smooth Shifts Wed, 1870-2010," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 20(3), pages 356-377, Summer.
    9. King, Alan & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2015. "Is Africa Actually Developing?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 598-613.
    10. Krasnopjorovs, Olegs, 2013. "Latvijas ekonomikas izaugsmi noteicošie faktori [Factors of Economic Growth in Latvia]," MPRA Paper 47550, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Diego Romero‐Ávila, 2009. "The Convergence Hypothesis For Oecd Countries Reconsidered: Panel Data Evidence With Multiple Breaks, 1870–2003," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 77(4), pages 552-574, July.
    12. King, Alan & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2015. "International income convergence: Is Latin America actually different?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 212-222.
    13. Faiza Azhar KHAN, 2016. "Revisiting the Relationship between β and σ Convergence," Pakistan Journal of Applied Economics, Applied Economics Research Centre, vol. 26(1), pages 43-52.
    14. Josep Carrion-i-Silvestre & Vicente German-Soto, 2009. "Panel data stochastic convergence analysis of the Mexican regions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 303-327, October.
    15. 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.
    16. Bah, Mohamed Siry, 2015. "Real convergence in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 19-23.
    17. King Alan & Ramlogan-Dobson Carlyn, 2014. "Are income differences within the OECD diminishing? Evidence from Fourier unit root tests," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 185-199, April.
    18. Ceylan, Reşat & Abiyev, Vasif, 2016. "An examination of convergence hypothesis for EU-15 countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 96-105.

    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. Cunado, J. & Perez de Gracia, F., 2006. "Real convergence in Africa in the second-half of the 20th century," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 153-167.
    2. Li, Qing & Papell, David, 1999. "Convergence of international output Time series evidence for 16 OECD countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 267-280, September.
    3. Strazicich, Mark C. & Lee, Junsoo & Day, Edward, 2004. "Are incomes converging among OECD countries? Time series evidence with two structural breaks," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 131-145, March.
    4. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:3:y:2007:i:6:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Eftychia Tsanana & Constantinos Katrakilidis, 2014. "Do Balkan economies catch up with EU? New evidence from panel unit root analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 641-662, November.
    6. Burcu Ozcan, 2014. "Does Income Converge among EU Member Countries following the Post-War Period? Evidence from the PANKPSS Test," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 22-38, October.
    7. Ceylan, Reşat & Abiyev, Vasif, 2016. "An examination of convergence hypothesis for EU-15 countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 96-105.
    8. Zhang, Zongyi & Liu, Aying & Yao, Shujie, 2001. "Convergence of China's regional incomes: 1952-1997," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 243-258.
    9. Miguel Lebre de Freitas, 2006. "Portugal–EU Convergence Revisited: Evidence for the Period 1960–2003," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 12(3), pages 408-418, August.
    10. Juncal Cunado & Fernando Perez de Gracia, 2006. "Real convergence in some Central and Eastern European countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(20), pages 2433-2441.
    11. Carlino, Gerald A. & Mills, Leonard, 1996. "Testing neoclassical convergence in regional incomes and earnings," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 565-590, December.
    12. Amit Sen, 2007. "On the Distribution of the Break-Date Estimator Implied by the Perron-Type Statistics When the Form of Break is Misspecified," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(6), pages 1-19.
    13. Costantini, Mauro & Sen, Amit, 2016. "A simple testing procedure for unit root and model specification," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 37-54.
    14. Matsuki, Takashi, 2019. "Per capita output convergence across Asian countries: Evidence from covariate unit root test with an endogenous structural break," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 99-118.
    15. Diego Romero‐Ávila, 2009. "The Convergence Hypothesis For Oecd Countries Reconsidered: Panel Data Evidence With Multiple Breaks, 1870–2003," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 77(4), pages 552-574, July.
    16. Paresh Kumar Narayan, 2005. "New evidence on purchasing power parity from 17 OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 1063-1071.
    17. Steven Cook, 2008. "An alternative perspective on the stochastic convergence of incomes in the United States," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(12), pages 929-934.
    18. Ghali, Khalifa H. & Trabelsi, Hédi, 2006. "Capital Ownership And Its Impact On International Trade And Economic Growth: The Tunisian Experience," MPRA Paper 78974, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Brittle, Shane, 2009. "Ricardian Equivalence and the Efficacy of Fiscal Policy in Australia," Economics Working Papers wp09-10, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    20. Bernd Aumann & Rolf Scheufele, 2010. "Is East Germany catching up? A time series perspective," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 177-192.
    21. Josep Carrion-i-Silvestre & Vicente German-Soto, 2010. "Stochastic convergence in the industrial sector of the Mexican states," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 45(3), pages 547-570, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:apl:wpaper:05-22. 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: O. Ashton Morgan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deappus.html .

    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.