Time series from fifteen OECD countries for the period 1870–1994 are examined to determine if per capita incomes are stochastically converging. To perform our tests, we utilize a minimum Lagrange multiplier unit root test that endogenously determines two structural breaks in level and trend. In contrast to other tests, our test is not subject to rejections of the null in the presence of a unit ...

The economics of health-care delivery are causing an increased consolidation via proliferation of large integrated delivery systems. [FN1] As this consolidation continues, two trends are emerging in health law that apparently will yield a form of greater liability and accountability for organized providers of health care, especially managed care organizations (MCOs).[FN2] The first trend arises...

Optimal international taxation and its implications for convergence in long run income growth rates are analyzed in the context of an endogenously growing world economy with perfect capital mobility. Under tax competition (i) the residence principle will maximize national welfare; (ii) the optimal long run tax rate on capital incomes from various sources will be zero in all countries; and (iii)...

This article draws attention to the Europeanization of social policy and the development of minimum income protection in a large number of welfare democracies. The empirical analyses are based on unique institutional and comparative data on benefit levels from the Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Interim Dataset. There is some evidence of convergence in benefit levels among the E...

This paper proposes and implements a method to predict the evolution of the crosscountry income distribution using a stochastic parameterization of the Azariadis– Drazen (1990) nonconvex growth model. We estimate the dynamic structure of that model from data in the Penn World Tables, and define inductively all future distributions as a norm-convergent sequence in the function space L1. Elements...

We estimate the speed of income convergence for a sample of 196 European NUTS 2 regions over the period 1985-1999. So far there is no direct estimator available for dynamic panels with strong spatial dependencies. We propose a two-step procedure, which involves first spatial filtering of the variables to remove the spatial correlation, and application of standard GMM estimators for dynamic pane...

A spatial dynamic panel data approach is adopted to study regional growth convergence in the U.S. economy. In the neoclassical growth model, regions and countries are assumed to be independent from each other, which may not be valid in the real world. We introduce technological spillovers into the neoclassical framework, showing that the convergence rate is higher and there is spatial interacti...

The mechanism by which aggregate supply creates the income that generates its matching demand (called Say’s Law), may not work in a general equilibrium with decentralized markets and savings in bonds or money. Full employment is an equilibrium, but convergence to that state is slow. A self-fulfilling precautionary motive to accumulate bonds (with a zero aggregate supply) can set the economy on ...

The recent literature on convergence has departed from the earlier literature by focusing on the shape of the production function and the rate at which an economy converges to its own steady state. This article uses advances from the recent literature to look back at the question that originally motivated the convergence literature: what will the distribution of per capita income look like in t...

This paper surveys the literature on regional inequality in contemporary China. It reviews the trend of convergence or divergence of real GDP or income across different regions in China since 1952, and examines the degree of regional inequality using different measurements. It then discusses various factors that may cause the increasing regional inequality and the empirical evidences correspond...