TRADE AND CONVERGENCE AMONG COUNTRIES

This paper examines the relationship between international trade and i ncome convergence among countries by focusing on groups of countries c omprising major trade partners. The majority of these trade-based grou ps exhibited significant convergence. Furthermore, a comparison of the trade-based groups with different country groupings (randomly selecte d, or according to other criteria) shows that the former were more lik ely to exhibit convergence than the latter.