Title: Unconditional Convergence of Labor Productivity in the Service Sector

Speaker:

AKM Mahbub Morshed, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Economics

时间：2017年3月23日 16：00-17：30

地点：bet365在线体育投注-bet365网站 614会议室

Abstract: Using disaggregated service sector data for 100 countries, we find an unconditional convergence in labor productivity for the service sector. The aggregate service sector yields a large unconditional convergence coefficient of -0.028, while for individual sub-sectors we find a similar presence of unconditional convergence. Since the service sector, as one of the “modern” sectors, now also faces international competition, unconditional convergence in labor productivity in this sector is not totally unwarranted. Given Rodrik’s (2013) recent findings of unconditional convergence in labor productivity in the manufacturing sector and the observed failure of unconditional convergence of per capita GDP, our findings of unconditional convergence in the service sector suggest that we need to look carefully at methodological issues such as “aggregation bias” and the huge divergence of other sectors, such as the agricultural sector, as a potential solution to this anomaly.