This bachelor’s thesis examines economic convergence and its pace among OECD countries using panel data, with a particular focus on the Czech Republic during the period from 2000 to 2019. The theoretical part of the thesis analyzes the concept of economic convergence in the context of the Solow model and the concepts of beta and sigma convergence as introduced in the articles by Barro & Sala-i-Martin (1991, 1992). In the empirical analysis of convergence, the growth model is estimated using... show full abstractThis bachelor’s thesis examines economic convergence and its pace among OECD countries using panel data, with a particular focus on the Czech Republic during the period from 2000 to 2019. The theoretical part of the thesis analyzes the concept of economic convergence in the context of the Solow model and the concepts of beta and sigma convergence as introduced in the articles by Barro & Sala-i-Martin (1991, 1992). In the empirical analysis of convergence, the growth model is estimated using the correlated random effects method, applied to two sub-samples: 2000-2009 and 2010-2019. The analysis concludes that convergence is occurring among OECD countries, but its pace is slowing. Similar conclusions are drawn from models focusing on the convergence of the Czech Republic towards the economically advanced Eurozone countries. Less developed OECD countries should therefore consider reassessing their equilibrium economic growth in their predictive models. |