Convergence-Divergence of Technological Efficiency and Productivity across World Regions Paper Title英文文献资料.docVIP

Modern Economy, 2012, 3, 690-694 /10.4236/me.2012.35089 Published Online September 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/me) Convergence-Divergence of Technological Efficiency and Productivity across World Regions Paper Title Edward Nissan, Farhang Niroomand Department of Political Science, International Development and International Affairs, 1 The University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg, Hattiesburg, USA School of Business Administration, University of Houston—Victoria, Victoria, USA Email: NiroomandF@ 2 Received July 8, 2012; revised August 8, 2012; accepted August 17, 2012 ABSTRACT This article examines inequalities between and within 57 countries, categorized by income levels, for efficiency in pro- duction and output per worker for 1965 and 1990. Regression analysis was also employed as a basis of convergence from which countries were evaluated for their potential to actual performance in efficiency and output over a span of 25 years. The findings indicate that gaps between the groups of countries widened as compared to gaps within the groups. Convergence was found to increase between the groups of countries as their income levels rose. Keywords: Convergence; Divergence; Technological; Efficiency; Productivity 1. Introduction growth of capital stock, labor supply and technical progress. Kumar and Russell (2002) [4], trace the development of theories starting with Solow (1956). Solow’s theory emphasizing technological progress, as explained earlier, was followed by the endogenous growth theory advocated by Romer (1986) [5] and Lucas, Jr. (1988) [6]. Their theo- ries include physical and human capital as important ele- ments of growth leading to convergence. Then there is the exogenous growth theory, which emphasizes the accumu- lation of capital as the source of conditional convergence. A variant theory on growth is that of Bernard and Jones (1996) [7], who consider technology as the source of con- vergence. Other contribu