What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 58,
no. 1, March 2020
(pp. 129-75)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
We examine the record of cross-country growth over the past fifty years and ask if developing countries have made progress on closing the income gap between their per capita incomes and those in the advanced economies. We conclude that, as a group, they have not and then survey the literature on absolute convergence with particular emphasis on that from the last decade or so. That literature supports our conclusion of a lack of progress in closing the income gap between countries. We close with a brief examination of the recent literature on cross-individual distribution of income, which finds that despite the lack of progress on cross country convergence, global inequality has tended to fall since 2000.Citation
Johnson, Paul, and Chris Papageorgiou. 2020. "What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?" Journal of Economic Literature, 58 (1): 129-75. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20181207Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E01 Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
- E13 General Aggregative Models: Neoclassical
- F41 Open Economy Macroeconomics
- F62 Economic Impacts of Globalization: Macroeconomic Impacts
- O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O47 Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence