Income per-capita across-countries: Stories of catching-up, stagnation, and laggardness
Juan Ricardo Perilla Jimenez
#2022-033
A sample of 131 countries is classified into those at the frontier (24
OECD countries), and those that over the 1950-2019 period managed to
catching-up, remained stagnant, or kept lagging further behind.
Timedistance to the frontier suggests that successful catching-up has
been already completed by some countries. But it would take no less than
27 years and as much as 194 years in the most optimistic scenario for
other countries. The comparative analysis reveals patterns of
(unconditional) convergence, secular stagnation and divergence
characterized by differences in the approach to local innovation and
technology diffusion from abroad, jointly with the ability to take
advantage of economies of scale.
Key words: Economic development and growth, technology change
JEL Classification: 011, 047, 057
