On the Role of Economic History in the Convergence Debate

Abstract

For over a decade and a half macroeconomists who study economic growth have been embroiled in a debate over the issue of economic convergence. That is, for similar economies do poorer economies tend to catch-up to richer economies? The answer to the question goes to the very core of how economists explain economic growth. Macro theorists have developed scores of economic growth models to address this question. In addition, numerous econometric tests have been conducted attempting to answer this convergence question. Yet one group of economists that have not had much impact on this issue are economic historians. However when economic history is used to augment the theoretical and empirical investigations of the convergence question, the results can be striking. This paper seeks to stimulate economic historians interest in the convergence debate by illustrating the impact economic historical research can have on this important topic.