Galton's Fallacy and economic convergence

The term Galton's Fallacy has more than one meaning. Usages of the term sta rting with Galton are reviewed. Recently the term has been used to denote p roblems encountered when the neoclassical convergence model is tested in a cross-section of country GNP histories (Barro-Baumol regressions). Friedman and Quah independently identify problems which they separately call Galton 's Fallacy. Friedman and Quah mean different things by the term. Once the n ature of various Galton fallacies have been clarified, it is possible to el ucidate some issues of econometric estimation which may be encountered in e conomic convergence regression estimation.