The paper presents an analysis of real income convergence between the 11 countries of Central Eastern Europe which have joined the European Union (EU11) and 15 countries of Western Europe (EU15) in the period 1993-2015. The evolution of the income gap between the two groups of countries in terms...

Theoretical models of growth reveal that either exogenous or endogenous, technology is the main driving force behind the long-run economic growth. Furthermore, in the endogenous growth framework, diffusion of technology is the basic mechanism of per capita income convergence among countries....

Using a panel data set covering 139 countries over the 1970-2009 period, we empirically investigate the role of foreign direct investment on growth through diffusion of technology and innovation. Using an otherwise standard growth regression and regressions on productivity growth, we introduce a...

Using a panel data set covering the period 1970-2004 and 96 countries, we provide empirical evidence that the composition of foreign capital, measured by the ratio FDI over total liabilities, has a positive effect on growth, directly and through convergence. Developing countries benefit...

Previous research has documented a strong correlation between countries’ income levels and the quality of their export goods. Given the evidence of fast unconditional convergence in export quality, this raises the question how to reconcile these stylized facts with a stable world income...

This article uses a nonparametric varying coefficient panel data model to study the convergence of real GDP per capita among 120 world economies for the sample period of 1980-2010. The estimates show that the indirect contribution of initial income via the control variables is important. The...

The global economy of the past century was dominated by the United States and Western Europe. When they sneezed, the old joke goes, the rest of the world caught a cold. But that dominance is now being challenged by the rise of rapidly growing emerging market economies. And the shift is changing...

The income convergence literature suggests that poor countries or regions can catch-up to rich ones conditional on sharing certain characteristics with rich countries or regions. Good institutions such as strong property rights and rule-of-law are key among those characteristics. Globalization...

This chapter reviews the literature that tries to explain the disparity and variation of GDP per worker and GDP per capita across countries and across time. There are many potential explanations for the different patterns of development across countries, including differences in luck, raw...