REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CONVERGENCE, 1950-2007: Some Empirical Evidence

This paper investigates and compares the experience of several geographic regions with economic growth and convergence in income per capita. Income per capita is correlated positively with saving rates and negatively with population growth rates, though the explanatory power of these two variables varies by region. The empirical findings are broadly supportive of conditional convergence at an estimated average annual rate that has ranged from 0.8% in Europe to 1.7% in Asia. It is also shown that the speed of convergence is far from constant over time: it has been steadily falling in the OECD and the Americas, but steadily increasing in Asia.