This paper is concerned with the nature of economic growth in 19 manufacturing industries between 1970-92. There is substantial heterogeneity (both across sectors and time) in rates of growth of value-added, hours worked, labor productivity and Total Factor Productivity during the sample period....

This paper considers the role of international openness in facilitating the convergence of average income per capita between countries. The statistical technique of Discriminant Analysis is used to sort economies into groups of open and closed on the basis of a number of measures of the stance...

There is a strong partial correlation between openness and rates of productivity growth across UK manufacturing sectors. The paper investigates the relationship more formally, within a theoretical model of productivity catch-up. The model identifies three potential effects of international...

This paper reviews the new economic geography literature, which accounts for the uneven distribution of economic activity across space in terms of a combination of love of variety preferences, increasing returns to scale and transport costs. After outlining the canonical core and periphery...

Although a rich and extensive body of theoretical research on new economic geography has emerged, empirical research remains comparatively less well developed. This paper reviews the existing empirical literature on the predictions of new economic geography models for the distribution of income...