Sigma Convergence versus Beta Convergence: Evidence from U.S. County-Level Data |
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| Authors: | ANDREW T YOUNG MATTHEW J HIGGINS† DANIEL LEVY‡ |
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| Institution: | Andrew T. Young; is from the Department of Economics, University of Mississippi, MS 38677 (E-mail:). Matthew J. Higgins; is from the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30308-0520 (E-mail:). Daniel Levy; is from the Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel (E-mail:). |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we outline (i) why σ-convergence may not accompany β-convergence, (ii) discuss evidence of β-convergence in the United States, and (iii) use U.S. county-level data containing over 3,000 cross-sectional observations to demonstrate that σ-convergence cannot be detected at the county level across the United States, or within the large majority of the individual U.S. states considered separately. Indeed, in many cases statistically significant σ- divergence is found. |
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| Keywords: | O11 O18 O40 R11 |
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