Bis heute weisen die westdeutschen Bundesländer persistente Unterschiede in ihrem Lebensstandard und ihrer Produktivität auf. Die Arbeit untersucht, ob es im Zeitraum von 1950 bis 1990 zu einer Konvergenz der Einkommens- und Produktivitätsniveaus zwischen den westdeutschen Bundesländern...

The mixed growth performance of emerging market economies has revived angst about a "middle-income trap". However, a forensic review of statistical evidence shows that middle-income countries “escape” to higher income levels more often than both poorer and richer countries. At the same time,...

This report argues that if a growth surge is to evolve into a virtuous spiral that stimulates even higher and sustained growth rates in a substantial number of African countries, a significant increase in investment in physical and human capital is needed over an extended period. This report...

This paper generalizes the Nelson-Phelps catch-up model of technology diffusion. We allow for the possibility that the pattern of technology difusion can be exponential, which would predict that nations would exhibit positive catch-up with the leader nation, or logistic, in which a country with...

This paper examines whether the Solow growth model is consistent with the international variation in the standard of living. It shows that an augmented Solow model that includes accumulation of human as well as physical capital provides an excellent description of the cross-country data. The...