French Abstract: Entre 1950 et 1973, un processus de convergence absolue entre les États-Unis, considéréscomme les leaders technologiques du monde, et les pays d'Europe de l'Ouest et le Japon étaitobservable. Mais ce processus progressivement s'est atténué pour disparaitre...

Between 1950 and 1973, a process of absolute convergence was at work between the technological leader, the USA, West European countries and Japan. The catching up process between developed countries gradually vanished between 1973 and 1995. On the one hand, we had a revival of US labour...