Simple Measures of Convergence in Per Capita GDP: A Note on Some Further International Evidence

Gerry Boyle; (gboyle@may.ie) and Thomas Mccarthy

Economics Department Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth

Abstract: We apply simple measures of convergence in per capita GDP, namely, the trends in the coefficient of variation (sigma-convergence) and rank concordance (gamma-convergence), for the period 1960-1992 to a wide group of countries which are classified using the World Bank typology. The findings indicate sigma-convergence,albeit at a slow rate, for "High Income" and "Upper Middle Income" countries, very slow to negligible convergence for "Lower Middle Income" countries and divergence for "Low Income" countries. Our results also suggest several periods for all country categories when sigma- convergence is constant. However, since we do not find gamma-convergence during these episodes, we conclude that beta-convergence is not demonstrated. The rank concordance measure emerges as significant only from about the late 1980s, save in the case of "Low Income" countries where "leap frogging" is observed from about 1981. The implications of these results for the neoclassical growth model are discussed.

Keywords: Economic; Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O40 O50 O51 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13 pages
Date: 1997-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Simple measures of convergence in per capita GDP: a note on some further international evidence (1999)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:may:mayecw:n751197

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