The literature on regional growth convergence and economic disparities has tended to confound four interwoven measurement phenomena. i) mean reversion (so-called beta convergence) where richer regions move towards the average from above and poorer regions from below. ii) diminishing inequality...

This paper stresses the importance of accounting for regional heterogenity in the dynamic analysis of regional economic disparities. Studies of regional growth invariably presume regions are homogenous in that their socio-demographic composition is assumed to be broadly similar. We argue that...

We present a simple reproducible methodology for constructing regional capital stock data, which we apply to Israel. We find that capital deepening has been sigma-convergent since 1985. This process is "inverted" since capital stocks and capital-labor ratios in the richer center have been...

This paper tests the visa-led tourism hypothesis (VTH) which contends that easing of visa restrictions increases international tourism. Israel acts as a natural laboratory in this case with clear before and after junctures in visa restrictions. We use panel data on tourism to Israel from 60...

We create a longitudinal data set by matching immigrants in Israel's censuses for 1983 and 1995. These panel data reject the Immigrant Assimilation Hypothesis (IAH), which predicts that immigrants with shorter durations in 1983 should have experienced faster earnings growth between 1983 and...