Catching-up and Club Convergence From Cross-National Perspective a Statistical Study for the Period 1980–2010

The paper presents the analysis outcomes on the catching-up process. Additionally, it seeks to identify the “convergence clubs” in cross-national section. It implements a traditional analysis of convergence, tracking the catching-up process as well as the per capita income dynamics across time. The author finds no statistically significant relationship between an average annual GDP PPP per capita growth rates (as exponential growth rate) and initial GDP PPP per capita (as natural logarithm) in a selected group of countries. The author also identifies the existence of “rich country cluster” and “poor country cluster” in the analyzed sample. For the statistical analysis the author applies the country sample composed of 101 economies. All data concerning GDP PPP per capita are drawn from the IMF World Economic Outlook Database 2011. The time coverage is 1980-2010