Regional convergence in Kazakhstan

This article studies sigma- and beta-convergence across the regions of Kazakhstan over the period of 1993–2014. The results of the article show that incomes across the regions of Kazakhstan diverged over the whole period of 1993–2014 and the period of 1993–2006, and converged during the period of 2006–2014. However, after controlling for the rate of investment and population growth it is evident that regional convergence occurred over the whole period of 1993–2014. This would suggest that since private investment in Kazakhstan is heavily influenced by the availability of natural resources in the regions, regional policy in Kazakhstan should be directed towards shifting away from a resource-based growth model to an alternative growth model.     

Total factor productivity convergence across the Kazakh regions

This article examines total factor productivity (TFP) convergence across the regions of Kazakhstan over the period of 1997–2013. Using a growth accounting methodology we found that the average level of TFP fell by almost 40% over the period under consideration. Several panel unit root tests confirm that the whole set of Kazakh regions and the group of non-oil regions converged in terms of TFP, while the group of oil-rich regions diverged. This result explains sigma-divergence of the GRP per capita across the regions of Kazakhstan by divergence in capital intensity.