Long-Run Convergence in Manufacturing and Innovation-Based Models

Abstract

Most studies of comparative productivities fail to find evidence of convergence in OECD manufacturing despite major economic growth theories predicting convergence. Using manufacturing data for 19 OECD countries over the period from 1870 to 2006 this study finds strong evidence of unconditional B-convergence as well as o-convergence. Panel data estimates suggest that the convergence has been driven by domestic R&D, international R&D spillovers and financial development as predicted by Schumpeterian growth theoriesConvergence, second-generation endogenous growth models