TY - JOUR

T1 - Long-term regional convergence in Mexico: A new look

AU - German-Soto, Vicente

AU - Gluschenko, Konstantin

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge financial support from the Autonomous University of Coahuila (V. German‐Soto) and Novosibirsk State University (K. Gluschenko). They also are grateful to two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - This paper explores the convergence hypothesis of Mexican states with the national level and with one another from 1940 to 2015. Interpreting convergence as catching-up, we also capture other types of regular evolution, namely, invariance of the income gap over time, permanent absence of the gap, and steadily increasing gap (deterministic divergence). As a tool of econometric analysis, we use a novel model that describes convergence by asymptotically decaying trends and covers other types of evolution as particular cases. The results obtained suggest one or other type of regularity to be peculiar to roughly ca. 40% of income gaps both with the national level and between states. However, convergence is observed only in 6% to 15% of cases. Regarding convergence at the national level, an additional analysis by three 50-year subperiod shows that in many cases the type of evolution changes for the same state from one subperiod to another. Analyzing convergence between states, we find that convergence between neighboring states is more frequent than between other states; however, the effect of the neighborhood is not too strong.

AB - This paper explores the convergence hypothesis of Mexican states with the national level and with one another from 1940 to 2015. Interpreting convergence as catching-up, we also capture other types of regular evolution, namely, invariance of the income gap over time, permanent absence of the gap, and steadily increasing gap (deterministic divergence). As a tool of econometric analysis, we use a novel model that describes convergence by asymptotically decaying trends and covers other types of evolution as particular cases. The results obtained suggest one or other type of regularity to be peculiar to roughly ca. 40% of income gaps both with the national level and between states. However, convergence is observed only in 6% to 15% of cases. Regarding convergence at the national level, an additional analysis by three 50-year subperiod shows that in many cases the type of evolution changes for the same state from one subperiod to another. Analyzing convergence between states, we find that convergence between neighboring states is more frequent than between other states; however, the effect of the neighborhood is not too strong.

KW - catching-up

KW - economic growth

KW - Mexican states

KW - nonlinear models

KW - regional inequality

KW - unit roots

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142438138&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/427a214c-76ff-3730-9a60-a970751867ee/

U2 - 10.1111/rode.12959

DO - 10.1111/rode.12959

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85142438138

VL - 27

SP - 963

EP - 991

JO - Review of Development Economics

JF - Review of Development Economics

SN - 1363-6669

IS - 2

ER -