TY  - JOUR
AU  - Barro,Robert J.
AU  - Sala-i-Martin,Xavier
TI  - Regional Growth and Migration: A Japan-U.S. Comparison
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4038
PY  - 1992
Y2  - March 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4038
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4038.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert J. Barro
Department of Economics
Littauer Center 218
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-3203
Fax: 617/496-8629
E-Mail: rbarro@harvard.edu

Xavier Sala-i-Martin
Department of Economics
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street, 1005
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-7055
Fax: 212/854-8059
E-Mail: xs23@columbia.edu
AB  - Do poor economies grow faster than rich ones? This important economic question (which we call [beta]-convergence) is analyzed in this paper using two regional data sets: 47 Prefectures in Japan and 48 States of the U.S.. We find clear evidence of convergence in both countries: poor prefectures and states grow faster. We also find that there is intraregional as well as interregional convergence. We analyze the cross sectional standard deviation across prefectures and states. We find that in both countries there has been a long term decline (a phenomenon that we call [sigma]-convergence). Finally we study the determinants of the rates of regional in-migration and, again. find striking similarities. In both countries, the reaction of net in-migration rates to the log of initial income is slightly above .025, which indicates a slow (although very significant) speed of population adjustment to income differentials. We find little evidence in favor of the argument that population movements are the reason why we find convergence across economies.
ER  -