Recent tests of the Convergence Hypothesis, or the tendency for per capita income levels to narrow over time, have included a time-series testing approach (see Bernard & Durlauf, 1995, 1996; Oxley & Greasley, 1995, Greasley & Oxley, 1997, 1998a). Results have been mixed, with Bernard & Durlauf...

This paper considers unit root tests of the index of British industrial production 1700-1913. For the full sample the data are found to be I(1). However, three distinct phases are identified with alternating stationarity properties. One period, 1780-1851, is identified as the British Industrial...

A pastoral boom led to higher farm and manufacturing productivity and to New Zealand attaining the world’s highest HDI in 1913. Staple exports invigorated the land market, diffused rural land ownership, and fostered intensive growth. The gains from higher land prices spread widely, but land...

This paper reports the first long-run test of how Genuine Savings (also called comprehensive investment or adjusted net savings) predicts future well-being. The theory of weak sustainability suggests that a country with a positive level of Genuine Savings (GS) should experience non-declining...

Modern macroeconomic theory utilises optimal control techniques to model the maximisation of individual well-being using a lifetime utility function. Agents face choices over current and future consumption (with resultant implied savings decisions) seeking to maximise the present value of...

This paper reports long-run tests of how comprehensive investment (CI) predicts future well-being in the USA. Theory suggests that a country with a positive level of CI should experience non-declining future utility. Despite the widespread uptake of CI, previous tests of its predictive power are...