Growth and convergence in South–South integration areas: An empirical analysis

Abstract

Until recently, it has been argued in economic theory that regional integration and trade agreements among developing countries may achieve negative growth effects. This study tests empirically the effects of such South–South agreements on growth and convergence. All three world regions in question are considered: South America, Southeast Asia, and Sub‐Saharan Africa. A comprehensive panel data analysis is conducted that distinguishes between the problems of testing for stronger growth and accelerated convergence, respectively. The data indicate that the considered South–South agreements promote both.

Hay convergencia en países emergentes? Evidencia de América Latina

“…More recently Elías and Fuentes (2016) analyze the degree of regional economic convergence in the Southern Cone, in particular for the cases of Argentina and Chile during the 1960-1985 period, and find a more rapid convergence in the case of Chile than in the case of Argentina. In turn, Barrientos Quiroga (2010) shows the existence of convergence clubs, while Sperlich (2012) results favors the hypothesis that trade agreements promoted convergence for the cases of Mercosur. On the contrary, Cáceres (1999) and Nuñez and Sandoval (2002), by means of unit root test find regional divergence for 17 countries.…”

The Africa-Dummy: Gone with the Millennium?

“…where η t are time fixed effects which might be skipped as argued by Islam (1995) -although he later on reincluded them to control for business cycles as he did no presmoothing -or be modeled linearly as η t = β 4 t, see Sperlich and Sperlich (2012). As after the HP smoothing the time trend turned out to be insignificant, we skipped it following the arguments of Islam (1995).…”