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The idea of convergence in economics (also sometimes known as the catch-up effect) is the hypothesis that poorer economies' per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies. As a result, all economies should eventually converge in terms of per capita income. Developing countries have the potential to grow at a faster rate than developed countries because diminishing returns (in particular, to capital) are not as strong as in capital-rich countries. Furthermore, poorer countries can replicate the production methods, technologies, and institutions of developed countries. In economic growth literature the term "convergence" can have two meanings. The first kind (sometimes called "sigma-convergence") refers to a reduction in the dispersion of levels of income across economies. "Beta-convergence" on the other hand, occurs when poor economies grow faster than rich ones. Economists say that there is "conditional beta-convergence" when economies experience "beta-convergence" but conditional on other variables being held constant. They say that "inconditional beta-convergence" or "absolute beta-convergence" exists when the growth rate of an economy declines as it approaches its steady state. According to Jack Goldstone, "in the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries",〔(Phases of global demographic transition correlate with phases of the Great Divergence and Great Convergence. ''Technological Forecasting and Social Change''. Volume 95, June 2015, Page 163 ); see also (''Great Divergence and Great Convergence. A Global Perspective'' ).〕 thus the present-day convergence should be regarded as a continuation of the Great Divergence. ==Limitations== The fact that a country is poor does not guarantee that catch-up growth will be achieved. Moses Abramovitz emphasised the need for 'Social Capabilities' to benefit from catch-up growth. These include an ability to absorb new technology, attract capital and participate in global markets. According to Abramovitz, these prerequisites must be in place in an economy before catch-up growth can occur, and explain why there is still divergence in the world today. The theory also assumes that technology is freely traded and available to developing countries that are attempting to catch-up. Capital that is expensive or unavailable to these economies can also prevent catch-up growth from occurring, especially given that capital is scarce in these countries. This often traps countries in a low-efficiency cycle whereby the most efficient technology is too expensive to be acquired. The differences in productivity techniques is what separates the leading developed nations from the following developed nations, but by a margin narrow enough to give the following nations an opportunity to catch-up. This process of catch-up continues as long as the following nations have something to learn from the leading nations, and will only cease when the knowledge discrepancy between the leading and following nations becomes very small and eventually exhausted. According to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, convergence is not occurring everywhere because of the closed economic policy of some developing countries, which could be solved through free trade and openness. In a study of 111 countries between 1970 and 1989, Sachs and Andrew Warner concluded that the industrialized countries had a growth of 2.3%/year/capita, open economy developing countries 4.5% and closed economy developing countries only 2%.〔"Vapaakauppa on kriiseistä huolimatta kasvun eliksiiri", Jeffrey Sachs, Helsingin Sanomat 1997-11-8 (the biggest newspaper in Finland)〕 Robert Lucas stated the "Lucas Paradox" which is the observation that capital is not flowing from developed countries to developing countries despite the fact that developing countries have lower levels of capital per worker. This statement, however, has received recently serious objections.〔Andrey Korotayev, Julia Zinkina, Justislav Bogevolnov, and Artemy Malkov. (Global Unconditional Convergence among Larger Economies after 1998? ). ''Journal of Globalization Studies'' 2/2 (2011): 25–62.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Convergence (economics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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