Economic Growth and Conditional Convergence: Its Speed For Selected Regions For 1961-2001

The study gives the theoretical justification for the per capita growth equations using Solovian model (1956) and its factor accumulation assumptions. The different forms of the per capita growth equation is used to test for 'conditional convergence' hypotheses and also work out the speed of conditional convergence for EU, East Asian and South Asian regions together from 1961-2001. Conditional convergence is prevalent among almost all pairs of regions in our sample except East Asian and South Asian nations together. Speed of conditional convergence ranges from 0.2 % in an year to 22%. Countries that are poor relative to their own steady state do tend to grow more rapidly. It does not mean that all countries in the world are converging to the same steady state, only that they are converging to their own steady states (conditional convergence)