TY  - JOUR
AU  - Helliwell,John F.
AU  - Chung,Alan
TI  - Macroeconomic Convergence:  International Transmission of Growth and Technical Progress
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3264
PY  - 1992
Y2  - April 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3264
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3264.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John F. Helliwell
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
and Department of Economics
University of British Columbia
997-1873 East Mall
Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1
CANADA
Tel: 604/822-4953
Fax: 604/822-5915
E-Mail: john.helliwell@ubc.ca

Alan Chung
E-Mail: chungkk@ippfa.com
M1  - published as John F. Helliwell, Alan Chung. "Macroeconomic Convergence: International Transmission of Growth and Technical Progress ," in Peter Hooper and J. David Richardson, editors, "International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research" University of Chicago Press (1991)

AB  - This paper uses data for nineteen industrial countries over the period 1960-1985 to examine the evidence for international convergence of technical progress. Several models of convergence, including a model in which convergence is affected by changes in a country's openness to trade, are evaluated against competing alternatives. We also assess the extent to which convergence depends on some key measurement issues, including the use of purchasing power parities to compare real output in different countries, the use of different capital stocks in aggregate production functions, and alternative ways of representing embodied or disembodied technical progress. The various models of technical progress are assessed by non-nested tests of both the estimated output equations, using the factor utilization model, and their related factor demand equations. The results show significant evidence of international convergence in the rates of growth of labour efficiency, and some evidence that convergence is faster for countries that have been increasing their openness to international trade. A more general model of output determination, encompassing variations in factor utilization as well as tho autocorrelated technology shocks used in real business cycle models, was found to be preferred over more restricted alternatives.
ER  -