Dr. Bisrat Kinfemichael presented a paper at the Eastern Economic Association 43^rd Annual Conference held on February 23-26, 2017 in New York, NY. The title of the paper is “Sectoral Convergence of Labor Productivity in the US States.”

When discussing the content of the paper, Dr. Kinfemichael states, “We examined sectoral unconditional convergence in labor productivity in the US sates using two series of data sets for the period 1987-1997 and 1998-2013. We have found evidence for catching up in labor productivity in the US states for the majority sectors. The aggregate per capita GDP convergence test shows evidence for convergence for the 1980-1997 data but no evidence for convergence in the recent data consistent with the existing literature. The same factors that were considered responsible for regional convergence in the US states, such as migration and falling cost of education, could work in the opposite direction to cause divergence in per capita income in recent years.”