On the Distribution Dynamics of Human Development: Evidence from the Metropolitan Regions of Bolivia

Mendez, Carlos (2018): On the Distribution Dynamics of Human Development: Evidence from the Metropolitan Regions of Bolivia.

Abstract

Bolivia has experienced large socioeconomic transformations in the last decades. Among them, almost half of the population currently lives in the main metropolitan regions of the country. Motivated by the potential for growth and development convergence in these regions, this article documents the evolution of human development disparities and convergence patterns over the 1992-2013 period. Using a distribution dynamics framework, this article evaluates both the transitional dynamics and the long-run equilibrium of the cross-regional distribution of human development. Results from the transitional dynamics analysis suggest that the formation of multiple clusters of convergence is a salient feature of inequality reduction in human development. On the other hand, results from the long-run equilibrium analysis suggest that the process of regional convergence is characterized by the transformation of a trimodal distribution into a left-skewed unimodal distribution. The article concludes emphasizing that the cross-regional distribution of human development in Bolivia is quite sticky at its left tail, and as a result, the least developed regions are still relatively far from achieving complete convergence in the long run.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: convergence, distribution dynamics, human development, Bolivia
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources ; Human Development ; Income Distribution ; Migration; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth ; Aggregate Productivity ; Cross-Country Output Convergence; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O54 - Latin America ; Caribbean

References

Epstein, P., Howlett, P., and Schulze, M.-S. (2003). Distribution dynamics: stratification, polarization, and convergence among OECD economies, 1870–1992. Explorations in Economic History, 40(1):78–97.

Johnson, P. A. (2000). A nonparametric analysis of income convergence across the US states. Economics Letters, 69(2):219–223.

Johnson, P. A. (2005). A continuous state space approach to convergence by parts. Economics Letters, 86(3):317–321.

Kar, S., Jha, D., and Kateja, A. (2011). Club-convergence and polarization of states: A nonparametric analysis of post-reform india. Indian Growth and Development Review, 4(1):53–72.

Magrini, S. (1999). The evolution of income disparities among the regions of the European Union. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 29(2):257–281.

Magrini, S. (2004). Regional (di) convergence. In Handbook of regional and urban economics, volume 4, pages 2741–2796. Elsevier.

Magrini, S. (2009). Why should we analyze convergence using the distribution dynamics approach? Scienze Regionali, (8)1: 5-34.

Quah, D. (1993). Galton’s fallacy and tests of the convergence hypothesis. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 95(4): pages 427–443.

Quah, D. T. (1997). Empirics for growth and distribution: stratification, polarization, and convergence clubs. Journal of economic growth, 2(1):27–59.

Silverman, B. (1986). Density estimation for statistics and data analysis. Chapman and Hall Publishers

UNDP (2016). El nuevo rostro de Bolivia: Transformación social y metropolización. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report for Bolivia, Bolivia, La Paz.