The International Volatility of Growth

Growth in the world economy is not shared equally among all countries, with some growing faster, some slower and some not at all. The cross-country distribution of growth is a useful tool for analysing the inequality of growth. The appropriately-weighted first moment of this distribution is world growth, while the second measures cross-country volatility. This paper introduces a methodology to examine the cross-country distribution of growth, and the components of its volatility. Using data from the Penn World Table, we find countries within geographic regions are seeing a harmonisation of growth, but between regions there is increasing dispersion.Growth, Cross-Country Distribution, Volatility