Recent estimates of convergence equations using panel data techniques tend to produce theoretically unpalatable results which run counter to the views prevailing in the literature. This paper argues that these results may be partly due to the difficulty of empirically separating short-term...

We construct a revised version of the Barro and Lee (1996) data set for a sample of OECD countries using previously unexploited sources and following a heuristic approach to obtain plausible time profiles for attainment levels by removing sharp breaks in the data that seem to reflect changes in...

We investigate the sources of productivity convergence using panel data for the Spanish regions. As a framwork, we develop a simple descriptive growth model which allows for factor accumulation, technological diffusion and rate effects from human capital and which includes fixed regional effects...

This document describes the construction of series on the educational attainment of the adult population in a sample of 21 OECD countries for the period 1960-95. These series are a revised version of the data set described in de la Fuente and Doménech (2000).

This paper surveys the recent literature on convergence across countries and regions. We discuss the main convergence and divergence mechanisms identified in the literature and develop a simple model that illustrates their implications for income dynamics. We then review the existing empirical...

Recent empirical studies tend to confirm the importance of investment in human and technological capital as determinants of growth. Extensions of the neoclassical model that incorporate these factors explain rather well the long-run growth experience of a large sample of countries, and are...

This paper analyzes the redistributive effects of the EU budget during the period 1986-97 and advances a proposal for setting member countries' budgetary balances in a manner consistent with a simple equity criterion based on relative income per capita.

This paper analyses the sources of post-war growth and convergence in the OECD using an extension of Mankiw, Romer and Weil's (1992) model in which the rate of technical progress is determined endogenously by the level of R&D spending and a process of technological catch-up. The results indicate...

This Paper compares the observed distribution of the stock of infrastructures across the Spanish regions with the optimal allocation derived from a planning problem in which the observed degree of ex-post redistribution is taken as given. The results suggest that Spanish public investment policy...

This paper explores the sources of Ireland’s relative growth performance. Using panel data for a sample of OECD countries, we estimate a convergence equation and use it to conduct a growth accounting exercise which provides quantitative estimates of the immediate sources of Ireland’s growth...