Thesis Public Defense | VNP26 - Tôn Đức Thăng Long

Spatial analysis of club convergence polarization in income across Vietnamese provinces

Student: Tôn Đức Thăng Long, VNP26

Supervisor: Dr. Lê Văn Chơn

Abstract:

In the development process, income inequality attracts a lot of attention, most notably higher income hinders economic growth. There are various research papers examining absolute and conditional convergence through growth endogenous model. But the researchers use traditional regression methods that do not take into account the spatial factor. Even if spatial regression is used, only absolute convergence is examined. This thesis sheds light on both absolute and conditional convergence through spatial regression models. This research also shows that there is a polarization of club convergence between regions. Seeking evidence that a trained workforce has an impact on income growth is not the same across regions. Aside from the technology gap is not uniform, the absorption in the regions is dissimilar. Additionally, the above new points, an up-to-date analysis of this paper is the use of data visualization with multifarious charts and maps of Vietnam to elucidate the club convergence and the growth rate of the regions. Finally, this research uses the AIC criterion to choose the most optimal spatial correlation matrix models, which few research papers on spatial regression conduct, especially on the topic of convergence growth.
Key words: Convergence, Absolute convergence, Conditional convergence, Club convergence, Divergence, Polarization, Spatial Regression, Technology absorption.

JEL codes: F43; C31; E13; H41; J21; J82; O47; O43