This dissertation consists of three empirical essays, investigating the impact of globalizing flows on the pattern of income convergence at both inter and intra-regional levels. The first essay answers two questions. First, to what extent have peripheral world regions been converging (or diverging) to (or from) the core world region of North America since 1970? In terms of the performance of individual peripheral regions relative to the core, there is no evidence that any region has persistently converged toward or diverged from the core region (in terms of per capita income). Among globalizing flows, none of them are found to be significantly associated with changes in inter-regional income gaps. The second essay seeks to determine the patterns of intra-regional income convergence (or divergence) in Latin America and the Caribbean and assesses the effects of inter- and intra-regional flows on the tendency to converge or diverge. Log t convergence tests indicate the existence of convergence club(s). Sigma convergence tests do not show any falling trends in income dispersion for the region and each of its convergence clubs. Our regression results also suggest that only the flows of inter-regional export and import in high technology products have long-run convergent effects on the pattern of convergence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The third essay examines the patterns of intra-regional income convergence (or divergence) in East and South-East Asia and investigates the effects of inter- and intra-regional flows on the pattern of intra-regional convergence (or divergence). Log t convergence tests identify the existence of two convergence clubs from 1970 to 2010. Although sigma convergence tests do not show any overall convergence trends for the entire period of study, they indicate a persistent decrease in the income dispersion of one club and a relatively stable income distribution in another club over the latest two decades. Our regression results suggest that intra-regional trade, especially intra-regional trade in high-technology goods, has a strong tendency to promote income convergence across countries in East and South-East Asia.

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Drawing on the European Social Survey the main objective of this essay is to assess whether there are differences in income convergence between immigrants and natives depending on whether one has a university education or not. This approach contrasts that of most other studies on income assimilation, as they typically only use education as a control variable. The results indicate that immigrants with lower education experience a larger negative income gap at arrival, but that their convergence rates are faster than those with higher education. Furthermore, the results imply that studying income convergence is very sensitive to having the proper kind of data. Using cross-sectional data, the study appears to suffer from various sources of bias.

This paper adopts a spatial econometric perspective to analyse regional convergence of per capita income in Europe in 1995 to 2000 and, moreover, relaxes the assumption of a single steady-state growth path which appears to be out of tune with reality of empirical dynamics. The two-club spatial error convergence model with groupwise heteroskedasticity is found to be most appropriate for the data at hand. Two empirical key findings are worthwhile to note. The first is that the data provide much support for unconditional ß-convergence in Europe. The second is that the usual convergence conclusions hold. But they do so for reasons that are not revealed by the classical test equation that is typical in mainstream economics literature. (authors' abstract)

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the growth performances of regions in Turkey and the role of human capital in this process within the framework of new growth theory. For this aim, it firstly attempts to investigate the evolution of regional income growth differences in Turkey in the period 1980-2000 and the tendency of provinces in Turkey towards income growth convergence. Secondly, by taking a detailed account of human capital, it aims to explore the contribution of human capital differences towards explaining income growth disparities among Turkey&rsquo / s provinces. In this framework, human capital is defined in terms of education, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Club-convergence analysis provides a more realistic and detailed picture about regional income growth than traditional convergence analysis. This paper presents a spatial econometric framework for club-convergence testing that relates the concept of club-convergence to the notion of spatial heterogeneity. The study provides evidence for the club-convergence hypothesis in cross-regional growth dynamics from a pan-European perspective. The conclusions are threefold. First, we reject the standard Barro-style regression model which underlies most empirical work on regional income convergence in favour of a two regime [club] alternative in which different regional economies obey different linear regressions when grouped by means of Getis and Ord's local clustering technique. Second, the results point to a heterogeneous pattern in the pan-European convergence process. Heterogeneity appears in both the convergence rate and the steady-state level. But, third, the study also reveals that spatial error dependence introduces an important bias in our perception of the club-convergence and shows that neglect of this bias would give rise to misleading conclusions.

The current and projected low fertility levels for Europe and the continuous increases in life expectancy imply that the region will go through an unprecedented process of population aging, leading to sizeable changes in the age structure of European societies. After reviewing the existing literature on the role played by demographic change as a determinant of economic growth and income convergence, with a focus on the European experience, we analyze the quantitative impact of the projected changes in the age and education composition of the labor force. Using newly available demographic projections, we show that the current demographic trends are expected to cause a slowdown in the speed of income convergence across European countries. Our projection exercise suggests that policies aimed exclusively at improving labor force participation do not appear to be sufficient to counteract the negative effects of aging on income convergence. Instead, we show that reducing the educational attainment gap between Central and Eastern European member states and the rest of the European Union in addition to increasing labor force participation leads to an accelerated pace of income convergence.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:00:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Victor Nunes Toscano.pdf: 1372273 bytes, checksum: b1225f480a9d20cfb441ba38b50536b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-31 / O presente trabalho busca estudar os efeitos da alocação de talento sobre o crescimento econômico dos estados brasileiros. As análises foram baseadas nas contribuições seminais de Murphy, Shleifer e Vishny (1991) sobre o tema, onde apresentam argumentos teóricos e empíricos de que a alocação de talentos em atividades empreendedoras afeta positivamente o crescimento econômico, ao passo que a alocação de talento em atividades rent seeking o afeta negativamente. Para verificar empiricamente essa hipótese, utilizamos dados anuais de 1999 a 2007, de crescimento do PIB per capita, bem como o número de engenheiros e advogados empregados formalmente em cada Unidade da Federação para representar as atividades empreendedoras e de rent seeking, respectivamente. Aplicamos os estimadores tradicionais de cross section, de painel empilhado (pooling) e o método proposto por Arellano e Bond para estimar a equação de convergência de renda para os estados brasileiros. Os resultados apresentados demonstram que há convergência de renda, a 1% de confiança, para os estados brasileiros com as estimativas utilizando dados em painel alcançando velocidades de convergência nitidamente superiores. Quando controlamos as estimativas pelas variáveis de número de engenheiros e advogados a cada 100 mil habitantes, há um aumento de três pontos percentuais na velocidade de convergência dos estados e uma estabilidade ao utilizar o método de Arellano e Bond. Importante ressaltar que os coeficientes estimados para a variável de engenheiros apresentou sinal positivo e estatisticamente significante indicando, à princípio uma relação positiva com o processo de crescimento econômico dos estados, ao passo que os coeficientes relacionados à variável de advogados não apresentaram resultados robustos / This work studies the effects of the allocation of talent on the economic growth of states. Analyses were based on the seminal contributions of Murphy, Shleifer and Vishny (1991) on the theme, where they present theoretical and empirical arguments that the allocation of talent in entrepreneurial activities affects positively the economic growth, while the allocation of talent in rent seeking activities affect it negatively. To empirically test this hypothesis, we used annual data from 1999 to 2007, GDP growth per capita and the number of engineers and lawyers formally employed in each state to represent the entrepreneurial activities and rent seeking, respectively. We apply the traditional estimators of cross section of pooling and the method proposed by Arellano and Bond s equation to estimate income convergence for the states. The results show that there is convergence of income, 1% confidence for the Brazilian states with the estimates using panel data reaching speeds of convergence significantly higher. When we control the estimates for the variables of the number of engineers and lawyers for each 100 thousand habitants, there is an increase of three percentage points in the convergence speed and stability of states using the method of Arellano and Bond. Importantly, the estimated coefficients for the variable of engineers showed statistically significant and positive sign indicating, at first a positive relationship with the process of economic growth of states, while the coefficients related to the variable of lawyers did not show robust results

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1667284 bytes, checksum: 63cad23362c145acc15684fb3a3077f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate the behavior of GDP per capita in Paraíba municipalities, as well as the existence of an income convergence behavior in the time period between the years 1970 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2008. To that end, we performed exploratory analysis of spatial data to describe and visualize spatial distributions by analyzing the spatial statistics of the Moran's I and LISA. In order to empirically test the convergence of income, we used various econometric techniques, namely: Method of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), OLS with spatial correction, quantile regressions and Markov chain. The variables used in this work are from different sources, which are calculated from the database available on the website of IPEADATA. The results of the analysis of Moran's I and LISA for the rate of growth of GDP per capita suggest the existence of a process of income convergence between the municipalities of Paraíba in the study period. The OLS method proved not to be the most appropriate technique to analyze income convergence. On the other hand, there was the results of models of spatial econometrics, SEM, and SAR, strong evidence of a process of spatial convergence of income per capita among municipalities Paraíba. The convergence behavior was also observed in the quantile regression model, since the coefficient of initial per capita GDP variable appeared negative in the whole distribution. Finally, the Markov chain analysis showed that a number of municipalities that are inserted in the Zona da Mata focus on the platform defined as the richest municipalities in the initial period that remain rich in the final period analyzed. / O objetivo geral desta dissertação é investigar o comportamento do PIB per capita nos municípios paraibanos, como também a existência de um comportamento de convergência de renda no período de tempo compreendido entre os anos de 1970 a 1996 e 1999 a 2008. Para tanto, foi realizado a Análise Exploratória dos Dados Espaciais para descrever e visualizar distribuições espaciais através da análise das estatísticas espaciais do I de Moran e LISA. Com a finalidade de testar empiricamente a convergência de renda, utilizou-se as diversas técnicas econométricas, a saber: Método dos Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários (OLS), OLS com correção espacial, Regressões Quantílicas e cadeia de Markov. As variáveis utilizadas neste trabalho são provenientes de diferentes fontes, as quais são calculadas a partir da base de dados disponível no sítio do IPEADATA. O resultado das análises do I de Moran e LISA para a taxa de crescimento do PIB per capita sugerem a existência de um processo de convergência de renda entre os municípios da Paraíba no período em estudo. O método OLS mostrou não ser a técnica mais apropriada para analisar a convergência de renda. Por outro lado, verificou-se nos resultados dos modelos da econometria espacial, SEM e SAR, fortes evidências de um processo de convergência espacial da renda per capita entre os municípios paraibanos. O comportamento de convergência também foi verificado no modelo de Regressão Quantílica, uma vez que o coeficiente da variável PIB per capita inicial apresentou-se negativo em toda distribuição. Por fim, a análise da cadeia de Markov apontou que grande parte dos municípios que estão inseridos na região da Zona da Mata concentram-se no estado definido como os municípios ricos no período inicial que permanecem ricos no período final analisado.

nÃo hà / O papel das condiÃÃes iniciais sobre a determinaÃÃo dos nÃveis de renda de longo prazo das economias e, consequentemente, sobre a desigualdade à um tema que ainda permanece em ativo debate. O objetivo do trabalho à realizar uma anÃlise empÃrica, atravÃs do modelo threshold, do processo de convergÃncia de renda entre os municÃpios brasileiros no perÃodo de 1980 a 2000, com o intuito de verificar a existÃncia de clubes de convergÃncia. De maneira geral, o capital humano mostra-se estatisticamente significante para explicar o processo de crescimento econÃmico de todos os grupos de municÃpios. Com relaÃÃo ao capital fÃsico, este se mostrou significantemente negativo, o que demonstra um papel negativo para o investimento pÃblico realizado nos municÃpios brasileiros. / The role of initial conditions on the determination of levels of long-term income economies and, consequently, on the inequality is a theme that still remains in active debate. The goal of the work is to perform an empirical analysis, model threshold, the process of convergence of income between the Brazilian municipalities in the period from 1980 to 2000, in order to verify the existence of clubs of convergence. Generally speaking, human capital is statistically significant to explain the process of economic growth for all groups of municipalities. With respect to physical capital, this proved significantly negative, which shows a negative role for public investment in Brazilian municipalities.