Income Convergence during the Disintegration of the World Economy, 1919-39
Some economists have argued that the process of disintegration of the world economy between the two world wars led to income divergence between the countries. This is in keeping with the view that economic integration leads to income convergence. T...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/01/2126587/income-convergence-during-disintegration-world-economy-1919-39 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19178 |
| Summary: | Some economists have argued that the
process of disintegration of the world economy between the
two world wars led to income divergence between the
countries. This is in keeping with the view that economic
integration leads to income convergence. The paper shows
that the view that the period 1919-39 was associated with
divergence of incomes among the rich countries is wrong. On
the contrary, income convergence continued and even
accelerated. Since the mid-19th century, incomes of rich
countries tended to converge in peacetime regardless of
whether their economies were more or less integrated. This,
in turn, implies that it may not be trade and capital and
labor flows that matter for income convergence but some
other, less easily observable, forces like diffusion of
information and technology. |
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