The Economic Convergence of Sub-Saharan Africa towards the Higher per Capita Income Developed Countries: A Comparison with the Convergence of the Central and Eastern European Countries towards the Western European Countries

The Economic Convergence of Sub-Saharan Africa towards the Higher per Capita Income Developed Countries: A Comparison with the Convergence of the Central and Eastern European Countries towards the Western European Countries | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Economic Convergence of Sub-Saharan Africa towards the Higher per Capita Income Developed Countries: A Comparison with the Convergence of the Central and Eastern European Countries towards the Western European Countries Dennis Nchor, Petr Rozmahel This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9214217/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The focus of convergence literature has been on the advanced or developed countries with less attention on Sub-Saharan Africa. Our paper therefore fills this gap by assessing the convergence of a sample of 46 Sub-Saharan African countries towards the higher per capita income developed world. We compare the convergence process of the Sub-Saharan African countries with the process of the lower per capita income Central and Eastern European countries towards the Western European countries. We applied the traditional neoclassical beta and sigma convergence approaches and complemented our results with a test of convergence clubs. Our results confirm beta and sigma convergence of the Central and Eastern European countries towards the higher per capita income Western European countries at an annual speed of about 2% but no convergence between Sub-Saharan Africa and the developed countries. Furthermore, our test of convergence clubs shows four clubs for the European Union and five for Sub-Saharan Africa indicating income disparity amongst the countries in the regions. Using a percentile test of gaps in per capita income and the generalized entropy index, we found that per income disparity increased in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1990 to 2024 but reduced in the European Union. JEL Classification : E23, F23, O11, O32, R11 Economic Growth Convergence Sub-Saharan Africa Inequality European Union Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9214217","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":615406498,"identity":"93a62721-46e2-4031-acfa-cddb2c3a1afd","order_by":0,"name":"Dennis Nchor","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7klEQVRIie3QMQuCQBTA8TuEJrH1+S2EQAqqz+JDqMVaWiOMwM1ajb6E082FcC7S7BBUe0PQUiDUGU7BiWPD/eHgOPjx7o4Qleof24vllBsQ6/490fzmhEbfE9qAkIpoehNipCG/XAoybe9W/DHw+lMjXQZA5gspMbPj2MKAzODE3d2EjWZmdhCEt6TEyj0b0CcYg9fRJizBOMcAqK/Lyflmg1NUpMfeGJ+vJYGaKbogrYpQthdTaEmsmreUFwsAo3zk0pC5uM1w1XW4IyVGmtnms+jjJnIT8mJDXKfJIb/X/FjV783lM1QqlUrVpA/CmVhveY1yjAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Mendel University in Brno","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dennis","middleName":"","lastName":"Nchor","suffix":""},{"id":615406499,"identity":"cb0d6406-2b15-437d-9924-f047a8cd5dfa","order_by":1,"name":"Petr Rozmahel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Mendel University in Brno","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Petr","middleName":"","lastName":"Rozmahel","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-24 16:08:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9214217/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9214217/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105954696,"identity":"6bc162d9-da76-4fd5-bbaf-364ab85b2002","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 19:40:38","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":837945,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Revisedmanuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9214217/v1_covered_a7646987-1e85-43da-856c-a8c6b47ddfef.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Economic Convergence of Sub-Saharan Africa towards the Higher per Capita Income Developed Countries: A Comparison with the Convergence of the Central and Eastern European Countries towards the Western European Countries ","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Economic Growth, Convergence, Sub-Saharan Africa, Inequality, European Union","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9214217/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9214217/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe focus of convergence literature has been on the advanced or developed countries with less attention on Sub-Saharan Africa. 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