IS THERE CONVERGENCE ACROSS COUNTRIES? A SPATIAL APPROACH

Heather Berry; Mauro F Guillen; Arun S Hendi

doi:10.1057/jibs.2013.72

IS THERE CONVERGENCE ACROSS COUNTRIES? A SPATIAL APPROACH

J Int Bus Stud. 2014:45:387-404. doi: 10.1057/jibs.2013.72.

Authors

Heather Berry¹, Mauro F Guillen², Arun S Hendi³

Affiliations

¹ George Washington University, School of Business, Funger Hall 401T, 2201 G Street, Washington DC 20052, berryh@gwu.edu.
² The Wharton School, 212 Lauder-Fischer Hall, 256 South 37 Street, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, guillen@wharton.upenn.edu.
³ Population Studies Center, 239 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, hendias@sas.upenn.edu.

Abstract

We analyze convergence across countries over the last half century as a result of globalizing forces. Drawing on theories of modernization, dependency, the world-system, political trade blocs, and the world-society, we consider economic, demographic, knowledge, financial, and political dimensions of convergence. Using a new methodology, we calculate the minimum volume ellipsoid encompassing different groupings of countries, finding that during the 1960-2009 period, countries have not evolved significantly closer or similar to one another, although groups of countries based on their core-periphery status or membership in trade blocs exhibit increasing internal convergence and divergence between one another.

Keywords: Convergence; Divergence; Minimum Volume Ellipsoid (MVE); Regional Integration; Semi-globalization; Trade Blocs.

Abstract

Grants and funding