In this paper, we propose a panel data semiparametric varying-coefficient model in which covariates (variables affecting the coefficients) are purely categorical. This model has two features: first, fixed effects are included to allow for correlation between individual unobserved heterogeneity...

Empirical growth analysis is plagued with three problems — variable selection, parameter heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence — which are addressed independently from each other in most studies. The purpose of this study is to pro- pose an integrated framework that extends the...

Despite its paramount importance in the empirical growth literature, productivity convergence analysis has three problems that have yet to be resolved: (1) little attempt has been made to explore the hierarchical structure of industry-level datasets; (2) industry-level technology heterogeneity...