DP4349 The Mirage of Convergence: Why Poor Countries May Only Seem to Be Closing the Income Gap

Author(s):	Randall K Filer, Dana Hajkova, Jan Hanousek
Publication Date:	April 2004
Keyword(s):	growth, measurement
JEL(s):	C82, O47
Programme Areas:	Transition Economics, Institutions and Economic Performance
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=4349

Replication of two recent studies of growth determinants shows that results are sensitive to the choice of data from which growth rates are calculated, especially with respect to whether economic convergence has occurred. Previous warnings against using data that has been adjusted to increase cross-country comparability to study within-country patterns over time (growth rates) have been largely ignored at the cost of possibly contaminating the conclusions.