Economic and social convergence in Colombia

Abstract

GDP has usually been used as a proxy for human well-being. Nevertheless, other social aspects should also be considered, such as life expectancy, infant mortality, educational enrolment and crime issues. This paper investigates economic and social convergence between regions in Colombia, in the period 1975-2005. The main results confirm that there is convergence in Colombia in key social variables, although not in the classic economic variable, GDP per capita. It is also found that spatial autocorrelation reinforces convergence processes through deepening market and social factors, while isolation condemns regions to non-convergence