This paper examines the polarization of economic development in African economies. Based on nonparametric and bipolarization frameworks, we find that countries tend to cluster in two classes, and that bipolarization has been accelerating over the period 1966–2008. We relate the evolution of...

We use country panel data spanning over 1998–2008 for both developed and developing countries to study the productivity growth when countries are close to the technology frontier. Relying on a semi-parametric generalized additive model, we estimate both reduced and structural forms for total...