Power Laws and Regional Convergence

Calvin Blackwell, Frank Hefner and Emily Lindberg

The American Economist, 2014, vol. 59, issue 1, 70-75

Abstract: Classical economic growth theory suggests that regions will converge. Using data from 198 countries, we test the convergence hypothesis by investigating whether GDP, per capita GDP, and population follow a power law distribution. We are unable to reject the hypothesis that these variables follow a power law distribution. Our research supports the hypothesis of random growth, which is consistent with both log normal and power law distributions.

Keywords: convergence; power laws; growth theory; regional development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:amerec:v:59:y:2014:i:1:p:70-75

DOI: 10.1177/056943451405900106

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