Regional Convergence in Italy : 1951-2000

In the paper we assess the convergence hypothesis for the Italian economy over the period 1951-2000, using a new methodological approach. The approach is based on a two-step recursive principal components estimator, allowing to monitor the progress of the convergence process over time and to distinguish between steady-state and transitional dynamics. The overall conclusions of our work are in favour of a two-speed unconditional convergence process in per capita GDP across Italian regions, occurring at a slow pace and not monotonically