This paper investigates whether the forty-eight contiguous U.S. states converge and, if so, whether convergence is absolute. Economies are shown to converge if, and only if, technology is stationary around a common trend. If convergence does occur, it is unlikely to be absolute unless the...

Using panel data for the forty-eight contiguous U.S. states in each year between 1970 and 1986, this paper investigates the extent to which government capital and current government services contribute to private production. The paper finds fairly strong evidence that current government...

This paper decomposes output fluctuations during the 1913 to 1940 period into components resulting from aggregate supply and aggregate demand shocks. We estimate a number of structural models, all of which yield qualitatively similar results. While identification is normally achieved by assuming...