Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Economics
Committee Chair/Advisor
Michal Jerzmanowski
Committee Member
Robert Tamura
Committee Member
Scott Baier
Committee Member
Aspen Gorry
Abstract
This dissertation is comprised of two essays in development economics, both related to conver gence either in outcomes (Chapter 1) or ultimate causes (Chapter 2).
Chapter 1:
This paper investigates the dynamics of productivity convergence across the United States from 1800 to 2020. Exploiting a novel historical dataset from Tamura et al. (2025), I examine β- and σ-convergence at both aggregate and sectoral levels for the entire history of the United States. I f ind a long-run trend toward convergence consistent with the conditions of an integrated national market with free mobility of labor and capital. However, the pace of convergence varies considerably, being weak before 1910 and strengthening afterwards. Weaker β-convergence in the pre-1910 period also accompanies σ-divergence, while in the post-1910 period stronger β-convergence accompanies σ-convergence. Performing a growth accounting and covariance-based variance decomposition, I identify total factor productivity as the driving force of both the growth rate and the variance of the growth rate in my extended panel’s earliest period. Sectoral disaggregation demonstrates a pattern in which all sectors converge and increase their rate of convergence in the twentieth century, but agriculture both converges and increases its rate of convergence the least, while services converge and increase their rate of convergence the most.
Chapter 2:
Recent research into economic growth has suggested that intermediate goods, under a directed technological change model, play a large role in determining variation in national incomes and wage dispersion previously attributed to exogenous ”total factor productivity” growth. Similarly, recent advancements in empirical trade theory have allowed for the unbiased estimation of trade barriers. In this exploratory paper I investigate a potential theoretical link between trade and technological growth using panel data formed from two data sets, one from Jerzmanowski and Tamura (2019) estimating technological adoption wedges from the structural DTC model and one from Baier (2022) estimating multilateral trade resistance terms from the structural gravity equations. I find strong evidence of a positive relationship between trade barriers and technological barriers that could motivate future theoretical research to link the two literatures.
Recommended Citation
Campbell, Jacob, "Two Essays in Development: Convergence and Technological Adoption" (2026). All Dissertations. 4217.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4217