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After the Second World War. the view that people of every nation would he entitled to experience rising standards of living pervaded all corners of the globe. Convergence was seen as a positive way of achieving a Golden Age and a peaceful and affluent Utopia, through modernisation and technical progress. Within this general belief, the development of national social welfare systems in Europe in the postwar period appears to be the outcome of autonomous national processes. The construction of Europe, which imposed common rules in many areas, was nonetheless consistent with the national development of social welfare systems within each national culture. The idea of a common system of social protection has always been linked to European political and economic construction, which was expected to create a more cohesive society. Reference is made constantly to convergence as a catching-up process in the comparative evaluation of national social policies, but the implementation of cm ambitious European system of social protection and the creation of harmonised national welfare systems have always proved to he impossible. The paper focuses on two specific topics. Firstly, it examines attempts to quantify' convergence among EU and OECD countries at the macro-economic level, using social indicators to assess the convergence or divergence of social expenditure. The evidence of convergence is shown to be ambiguous due to a number of methodological problems. Secondly, two main interpretations of convergence are examined: economic forces and legal frameworks. The paper shows that the analysis of national trajectories of social expenditure and the link with economic development can enrich the analysis of convergence or divergence in social protection. Even if the maturation or reform of national social policies explains the origins of increases in social expenditure, macro-economic pressures, or constraints (globalisation. Single Market), on public expenditure can fuel certain type of convergence. In all the developed countries, social welfare systems are based on national legal frameworks. A goal of social Europe is not only to work towards European solidarity bttt also to build common social rights throughout Europe. Convergence of national social welfare systems can, therefore, be interpreted as a component in a general process of convergence in law within the developed countries, especially within Europe. However, common explanations of convergence in social welfare systems often neglect elements of divergence. They, therefore, conceal the complexity of the process and very often underestimate the full extent of divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the catching-up hypothesis among the 29 transition countries using the time series approach to investigate income convergence. In this study, we propose a model which specifies a trend function incorporating both sharp and smooth breaks using dummy variables and Fourier functions, respectively. Our empirical results indicate that two convergence clubs are forming among the transition countries and one club is among the rich and the other club is among the poor countries, where most middle income countries will disappear and move into one of the two clubs. Also, our results indicate that the 1980s was an ominous decade for growth in the transition countries with income in most diverging from the USA. With recovery in the 1990s, we find that in the 2000s income per capita in most of these countries was catching up toward the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence/divergence of health care systems between countries is an interesting facet of the health care system research from a macroeconomic perspective. In this paper, we concentrate on an important dimension of every health care system, namely the convergence/divergence of health care financing (HCF). Based on data from 22 OECD countries in the time period 1970-2005, we use the public financing ratio (public financing in % of total HCF) and per capita public HCF as indicators for convergence. By applying different concepts of convergence, we find that HCF is converging. This conclusion also holds when we look at smaller subgroups of countries and shorter time periods. However, we find evidence that countries do not move towards a common mean and that the rate of convergence is decreasing over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature, theory and empirical evidence on the nexus of political freedom, economic freedom, and economic growth are mixed. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the effect of political freedom on promoting economic growth is realized and detectable at later stages of social and economic development. Using panel data for a sample of 104 countries between 1970 and 2003, we find strong support for our hypothesis. While economic freedom has greater effects on income convergence in the OECD countries, political freedom clearly promotes the convergence among those OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the recent evolution of manufacturing-related policies in leading OECD economies—Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A novel framework, the industrial policy matrix, is introduced and then used to illustrate and compare policy approaches in terms of factor inputs, intervention levels, and degrees of coordination. While approaches adopted in different countries vary, reflecting their respective contexts, there is some evidence of a convergence on the effectiveness of particular programmes and organizations as well as on the characteristics that support the competitiveness of national manufacturing systems, including coordination and alignment of related policies, partnerships with industry, and longer-term investment and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Most studies of comparative productivities fail to find evidence of convergence in OECD manufacturing despite major economic growth theories predicting convergence. Using manufacturing data for nineteen OECD countries over the period from 1870 to 2006, this study finds strong evidence of unconditional b-convergence as well as r-convergence. Panel data estimates suggest that the convergence has been driven by domestic R&D, international R&D spillovers, and financial development as predicted by Schumpeterian growth theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the convergence of energy intensities for a group of 97 countries in the period 1971–2003. Convergence is tested using a recent method proposed by Pesaran (2007) [Pesaran, M.H., 2007. A pair-wise approach to testing for output and growth convergence. Journal of Econometrics 138, 312–355] based on the stochastic convergence criterion. An advantage of this method is that results do not depend on a benchmark against which convergence is assessed. It gives more robust results. Applications of several unit-root tests as well as a stationarity test uniformly reject the global convergence hypothesis. Locally, for Middle East, OECD and Europe sub-groups, non-convergence is less strongly rejected. The introduction of possible structural breaks in the analysis only marginally provides more support to the convergence hypothesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we use sixteen financial indices from the World Bank's Financial Development and Structure database, to classify the OECD countries, according to their financial system structure, in five relatively homogenous clusters for the 1996-2005 period. We also examine the changes in their financial systems for the 1986-2005 period. Our analysis is based on the 'agglomerative method', a form of hierarchical clustering that uses Ward's methodology, to identify relatively homogenous groups of countries. The findings are surprising, yet reasonable. After two decades of deregulation, liberalization and globalization, the financial systems of the OECD countries not only differ in ways challenging the perceived wisdom that classifies them along the bank-based vs. capital-market-based norms, but additionally do not seem to converge to the second norm as is widely believed. These results warn against oversimplifications regarding financial system structure and the uncritical acceptance of policy recommendations based on them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes and tests definitions of convergence and common trends for per capita output. Use of cointegration techniques in testing; Problems concerning the use of cross-section results; Use of time series data for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economies.

This study investigated the convergence of healthcare financing across eight OECD countries during 1960–2009 for the first time. The panel stationary test incorporating both shapes of multiple structural breaks (i.e., sharp drifts and smooth transition shifts) and cross-sectional dependence was used to provide reliable evidence of convergence in healthcare financing. Our results suggested that the public share of total healthcare financing in eight OECD countries has exhibited signs of convergence towards that of the US. The convergence of healthcare financing not only reflected a decline in the share of public healthcare financing in these eight OECD countries but also exhibited an upward trend in the share of public healthcare financing in the US over the period of 1960–2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the real convergence hypothesis for 14 OECD countries looking at the fractional order of integration of the differences of real GDP per capita in these countries with respect to the United States. Using parametric procedures, the results vary depending on how we specify the I(0) disturbances. If they are white noise, convergence is achieved for Canada and Australia, and with autocorrelated disturbances, this hypothesis is satisfied for France and the Netherlands. However, allowing for a break at World War 11, evidence of convergence is obtained for all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apparent convergence of OECD income levels since 1950 is subjected to rigorous testing which suggests that there has occurred a systematic process of catching up in levels of total factor productivity. An econometric model of relative economic growth exhibits parameter stability over three decades, including the period after 1973, and statistical robustness, particularly with respect to sample selection. A reassessment is made of OECD comparative economic growth performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of globalization on the tax mixes of the OECD countries. A cluster analysis was used to identify countries' clusters with similar tax mixes in the period 1965 to 2003. The results confirmed the existence of the trend of convergence of the tax systems from the point of view of dividing taxes into direct and indirect categories.