This paper aims to test the conjecture advanced in a recent work by Bianchi and Menegatti (2007) that usual b-convergence panel regressions may produce biased evidence, due to their inability to distinguish between actual catching-up across countries and decreasing growth rates over time within countries. The test considers different sub-groups in a dataset of 72 countries for the period 1970-2000 and introduces both human capital and proxies for technological differences into the analysis. The results confirm the conjecture that traditional evidence about b-convergence may be misleading; they also show that catching-up across countries is weaker than usually claimed and that this process occurred only in some sub-groups of countries.
Pitfalls in estimating beta-convergence by means of panel data: an empirical test
BIANCHI, CARLUCCIO;MENEGATTI, MARIO
2009-01-01
Abstract
This paper aims to test the conjecture advanced in a recent work by Bianchi and Menegatti (2007) that usual b-convergence panel regressions may produce biased evidence, due to their inability to distinguish between actual catching-up across countries and decreasing growth rates over time within countries. The test considers different sub-groups in a dataset of 72 countries for the period 1970-2000 and introduces both human capital and proxies for technological differences into the analysis. The results confirm the conjecture that traditional evidence about b-convergence may be misleading; they also show that catching-up across countries is weaker than usually claimed and that this process occurred only in some sub-groups of countries.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
