Weighted convergence in Colombian departments: The role of geography and demography

We analyze per capita GDP convergence among Colombian departments between 2000 and 2016 using the distribution dynamics approach. Compared with previous studies, we provide a more complete view by including some additional information such as the asymptotic half-life of convergence, mobility indices and the continuous version of the ergodic distributions. In addition, we also extend the analysis to evaluate whether patterns could differ if weighted by either the population living in each department or the size of their economies, together with the existence and magnitude of spatial spillovers. The unweighted, unconditional analysis corroborates and supplements previous findings, especially those indicating that convergence patterns differ strongly under either pre-2008 or post- 2008 trends. Both the weighted and space-conditioned analyses indicate that convergence could be much faster when these factors are introduced in the analysis. Implications are especially relevant when weighting by population, since results suggest that the number of people escaping from relative poverty would be much higher than the figure predicted by the unweighted analysis.