Regional heterogeneity, conditional convergence and regional inequality

Michael Beenstock*, Daniel Felsenstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Regional heterogeneity, conditional convergence and regional inequality, Regional Studies. The paper stresses the importance of accounting for regional heterogeneity in the dynamic analysis of regional economic disparities. Studies of regional growth mainly presume that regions are homogeneous in their socio-demographic composition. It is argued that the analysis of regional convergence needs to be tested conditionally, i.e. conditional upon the socio-demographic structure of the workers in the various regions. To this end, various measures of conditional regional earnings inequality are estimated using Israeli regional data for the period 1991-2002. The results show that about half of regional earnings inequality may be accounted for by the conditioning variables. Conditioning also makes a large difference to estimates of Gini and beta-convergence. Conditional beta and Gini mobility are about half their unconditional counterparts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)475-488
Number of pages14
JournalRegional Studies
Volume42
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2008

Keywords

  • Conditional convergence
  • Inequality
  • Mobility
  • Regional homogeneity

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