Papers on Convergence, Spatial Income inequality, Fiscal Decentralisation
Smith, R.P. Econometric Aspects of Convergence: A Survey. Open Econ Rev 35, 701–721 (2024). Econometric Aspects of Convergence: A Survey [slides] [paper] link
"The general argument of this survey has been that rather than there being different ways to measure a single concept, convergence, the different measures are measuring different aspects of the growth process, which cannot be summarised in a single statistic like the speed of adjustment or rate of convergence. Thus it is important to be specific about the question being asked, in particular convergence to what, and to tailor the question to the nature of the available data, in particular to the dimensions of N and T: One can estimate relatively simple models with small data-sets, more complex models with more parameters require larger data-sets. There is the inevitable trade-off between bias and efficiency: adding more parameters reduces the possibility of bias but also increases the variance of the estimators."
Ong, K., K. Matthews, B. Wang, 2023, Growth versus Equity: The Effects of Centralised Fiscal Transfers on Chinese Provinces, Regional Studies, 57(11), 2307-2322. Cardiff-Fudan Working Paper 22/02 Revised draft replication_readme
Ong, K., K. Matthews, B. Wang, 2024, The Rising Tides That Lift the Boats: Growth through Heterogenous Convergence in Chinese Provinces, Open Economies Review, 35(4), 751-778. slides_conference slides_seminar SSRN
Ong, K., 2024, Do Countries Converge to Their Steady States at Different Rates? Open Economies Review, 35(4), 723-749. SSRN slides_wams slides_ppt
Regional Income Convergence: Brazil, The European Union and China. SSRN
World Bank forthcoming (2025) “Understanding and Unlocking State-Level Growth Potential in Malaysia”, Washington, DC: The World Bank. (with A. Samano, I.A. Razak and World Bank)
Who knows best? Do intergovernmental transfers reduce regional income inequality in China? (with K. Matthews and B. Wang) builds on Vertical Government External Grant awarded: Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Programme (PI; Sep 30th, 2025 - Sep 30th, 2028)
Climate change and subnational population dynamics in Southeast Asian countries (with F. Chan, P.S. Wibisana and M. Meng)