Convergence behaviour in exogenous growth models

This paper analyzes several aspects of convergence behaviour in the Solow growth model. In empirical work, a popular approach is to log-linearize around the steady-state. We investigate the conditions under which this approximation performs well, and discuss convergence behaviour when an economy is some distance from the steady-state. A formal analysis shows that convergence speeds will be heterogeneous across countries and over time. In particular, the Solow model implies that convergence to a growth path from above is slower than convergence from below. We find some support for this prediction in the data.