Real convergence in some emerging countries : a fractionally integrated approach

This article exanines the real convergence hypothesis in eleven emerging countries by means of fractionally integrated techniques. For this purpose, we examine the order of integration of the real GDP per capita series in Argentina. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea as well as their differences with respect to the US and Japan. We find evidence of smaller degrees of integration in the differenced series only for sorne of the Latin American countries with respect to the US, and for ail the Asian countries with respect to both the US and Japan. However, we only find evidence of real convergence for the cases of Argentina and Chile with respect to the US, and Taiwan with respect to Japan. suggesting thus the possibility of different convergence clubs among both Latin American and Asian countries.