Inequality in South America? An analysis of economic convergence: 1960-2015

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to determine whether there are convergence or divergence processes in South America from 1960 to 2015, for which data was collected on the Gross Domestic Product per capita of the ten main countries in the region. Next, we proceeded to calculate the sigma convergence, which implies that the "poorest" economies tend to grow more than the "rich" economies, and also the beta convergence, which allows us to know the level at which the backward economies grow the more than rich economies. In addition, beta convergence has been determined for different groups of countries in this same region. Once the methodology was applied, it was possible to determine that there are no marked economic convergence processes for South America and the convergence in the long term that arises in the orthodox economy is refuted, but for the countries of the Atlantic the Baumol affirmation is verified, he says that the convergence results only happen between rich countries, showing that the inequalities in the region are very marked, the accumulation of capital continuously widens the economic gap between countries.