Publication: Revisiting Growth and Convergence : Is Africa Catching Up?
Date
2001-05
ISSN
Published
2001-05
Author(s)
Tsangarides, Charalambos G.
Abstract
This article summarizes the publication
"Revisiting Gowth and Convergence: Is Africa Catching
Up?" The neoclassical Solow framework has been the
workhorse for empirical analysis of growth in industrial and
developing countries. In this framework, steady state
economic growth depends on exogenous technological progress
and population growth. In particular, without technological
progress, output per capita does not grow. An important
feature of the neoclassical model that has been the central
focus of empirical work is the convergence property: output
levels of countries with similar technologies converge to a
given level in the steady state. In the end, ceteris
paribus, the lagging poor countries will tend to catch up
with the rich. Using cross-sectional analysis the majority
of the literature seems to have reached a consensus on the
issue of convergence: the poor do catch up with the rich, at
a rate of 2-3 percent per year. The obvious shortcoming of
the neoclassical model is that long-run per capita growth is
determined by the exogenous rate of technological progress.
Work on endogenous growth theory has introduced alternative
models that explain long-run growth, and provide a theory of
technological progress: growth is generated by factors other
than exogenous technical change.
Citation
“Tsangarides, Charalambos G.. 2001. Revisiting Growth and Convergence : Is Africa Catching Up?. Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs; No. 183. © http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/34a688e8-5afd-5b42-9710-957403fb564c License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”