Suchergebnisse

"There are many different types of convergence within economics, as well as several methods to analyse each of them. This book addresses the concept of real economic convergence or the gradual levelling off of GDP per capita rates across economies. In addition to a detailed, holistic overview of the history and theory, the authors include a description of two modern methods of assessing the occurrence and rate of convergence, BMA-based and HMM-based, as well as the results of the empirical analysis. Readers will have access not only to the conventional econometric approach of beta convergence but also to an alternative one, allowing for the convergence issue to be expressed in the context of automatic pattern recognition. This approach is universal as it can be adapted to a variety of input data. The lowest aggregation level study investigates regional convergence through the case of Polish voivodships, where convergence toward the leader is tested. On a higher level of aggregation, the authors examine the existence of GDP convergence in such groups as the EU28, North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Caribbean, South-East Asia, Australia and Oceania or post-socialist countries. For each group, the real beta convergence is tested with the use of the two above-mentioned approaches. The results are widely discussed, broadly illustrated, interpreted, and compared. The analysis allows readers to draw interesting conclusions about the causes of convergence or the drivers behind divergence. The book will stimulate further research in the field but conducted from the point of view of individual countries."

The paper presents the review of the literature on income-level convergence(catching-up). The analysis includes convergence defined as the tendency toward equalization of income levels between countries. Unlike typical survey papers, the article focuses on the identification of weaknesses in the hitherto empirical studies on convergence. Apart from the standard types of the catching-up process (beta and sigma convergence), papers with the alternative measures of convergence(gamma and rho) are also analyzed. Both these elements constitute the value added of this research. The authors conclude that despite many empirical approaches, there is still much room for proposing new theoretical and empirical methods to analyze the catching-up process. Among others, studies that use hidden Markov models in the analysis of convergence are absent.

This paper employs hidden Markov models and the Viterbi path to analyze the process of real convergence. Such an approach combines the analysis of cyclical and income-level convergence. Twelve macroeconomic variables in the sample of 28 EU countries observed in the 1995-2016 period are within the scope of the study. The results indicate, among others, the existence of real convergence of Poland toward the remaining EU countries in terms of the levels of GDP per capita at PPP and GDP growth rates, with a short-run period of divergence during the global crisis.