Regional Cohesion: Evidence and Theories of Regional Growth and Convergence

Xavier Sala-i-Martin

No 1075, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: After arguing that the concepts of b-convergence and s-convergence are independently interesting, this paper extends the empirical evidence on regional growth and convergence across the United States, Japan, and five European nations. We confirm that the estimated speeds of convergence are surprisingly similar across data sets: regions tend to converge at a speed of approximately 2% per year. We also show that the inter-regional distribution of income in all countries has shrunk over time. We then argue that, among the proposed potential explanations of this phenomenon, the one-sector neoclassical growth model and the hypothesis of technological diffusion seem to be the only ones which survive scrutiny.

Keywords: Capital Mobility; Convergence; Endogenous Growth; Neoclassical Growth; Regional Cohesion; Regional Economic Growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O40 O41 O51 O52 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=1075 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Regional cohesion: Evidence and theories of regional growth and convergence (1996)
Working Paper: Regional Cohesion: Evidence and the Theories of Regional Growth and Convergence (1994)
Working Paper: Regional cohesion: Evidence and theories of regional growth and convergence (1994)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:1075

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... ers/dp.php?dpno=1075

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().