This paper formalizes international status seeking in a two-country model of endogenous growth: utility of agents in developing countries is affected by consumption gaps with advanced economies. By distorting intertemporal choices, envy tends to revert growth differentials in favor of the...

Global knowledge spillovers allow backward countries to catch up by accumulating knowledge faster than leading countries. International growth differentials will fall as diminishing returns with respect to the national knowledge stock apply. The domestic growth rat e will finally equal the...