Growth in Regions
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES
GROWTH IN REGIONS Nicola Gennaioli Rafael La Porta Florencio Lopez de Silanes Andrei Shleifer Working Paper 18937 http://www.nber.org/papers/w18937
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 April 2013
We are grateful to Jan Luksic for outstanding research assistance, to Antonio Spilimbergo for sharing the structural reform data set, and to Robert Barro, Peter Ganong, and Simon Jaeger for extremely helpful comments. Shleifer acknowledges financial support from the Kauffman Foundation. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2013 by Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez de Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.
Growth in Regions Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez de Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer NBER Working Paper No. 18937 April 2013 JEL No. O43,O47,R11 ABSTRACT We use a newly assembled sample of 1,503 regions from 82 countries to compare the speed of per capita income convergence within and across countries. Regional growth is shaped by similar factors as national growth, such as geography and human capital. Regional convergence is about 2.5% per year, not more than 1% per year faster than convergence between countries. Regional convergence is faster in richer countries, and countries with better capital markets. A calibration of a neoclassical growth model suggests that significant barriers to factor mobility within countries are needed to account for the evidence.
Nicola
GROWTH IN REGIONS Nicola Gennaioli Rafael La Porta Florencio Lopez de Silanes Andrei Shleifer Working Paper 18937 http://www.nber.org/papers/w18937
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 April 2013
We are grateful to Jan Luksic for outstanding research assistance, to Antonio Spilimbergo for sharing the structural reform data set, and to Robert Barro, Peter Ganong, and Simon Jaeger for extremely helpful comments. Shleifer acknowledges financial support from the Kauffman Foundation. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2013 by Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez de Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.
Growth in Regions Nicola Gennaioli, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez de Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer NBER Working Paper No. 18937 April 2013 JEL No. O43,O47,R11 ABSTRACT We use a newly assembled sample of 1,503 regions from 82 countries to compare the speed of per capita income convergence within and across countries. Regional growth is shaped by similar factors as national growth, such as geography and human capital. Regional convergence is about 2.5% per year, not more than 1% per year faster than convergence between countries. Regional convergence is faster in richer countries, and countries with better capital markets. A calibration of a neoclassical growth model suggests that significant barriers to factor mobility within countries are needed to account for the evidence.
Nicola
References: Schindler, Martin, 2009, "Measuring Financial Integration: A New Data Set," IMF Staff Papers 56:1, 2009, pp. 222-238. Spilimbergo, Antonio and Natasha Xingyuan Che, 2012, Structural Reforms and Regional Convergence, IMF Working Paper No. 12/106.