Further econometric evidence on the gravitation and convergence of industrial rates of return on regulating capital

The hypotheses of sectoral return rates on regulating capital either gravitating around or converging towards a common value is tested on data for various OECD countries by adopting two panel varying coefficient approaches. Our null hypotheses receive some empirical support, that turns out to be stronger once focusing on manufacturing industries only. We offer a meta-analytic framework to assess the results obtained in the present contribution and in the past literature as well. Finally we discuss implications for economic policies and future theoretical and empirical research.