Narrowing the gap between rich and poor countries. An introduction to the convergence debate

Are there economic forces that narrow the gap between rich and poor countri es New research tries to shed light on this old question. Although there ar e by now some well-established facts there are also a lot of controversial findings and unsettled issues. Therefore, this research is often labeled th e convergence debate. This paper presents a selective review of this resear ch/debate aimed at renders without previous knowledge within the field. Mor e specifically, we discuss the relationship between different convergence c oncepts such as absolute, conditional and club convergence, and the theoret ical and empirical foundations for the different concepts. We also discuss why the type of convergence is crucial for policy issues concerning poor co untries and why it is sometimes hard to distinguish empirically between som e concepts of convergence.