The Past, Present, and Future of Economic Convergence

Developing countries, led by Asia, have grown ­significantly more rapidly than mature economies over the last two decades, closing the gap between them. This experience is quite anomalous, since ­historically economic convergence has been the exception rather than the rule.

In this lecture, Dani Rodrik gives his first public lecture as Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science, and examines how economic growth shapes global inequality and what determines it in turn, paying particular attention to the role of ­industrialization in driving patterns of convergence and divergence. Rodrik concludes by ­speculating about the future of ­economic growth.