Have Per Capita Earnings and Income Converged across New England?

This article describes an analysis of recent change in both per capita earnings from employment and per capita income (including that from transfers and nonearnings sources) across New England's counties between 1970 and 2000. Breaking the period into three decade-long spans (1970–1980, 1980–1990, and 1990–2000), statistical evidence is strong that the region experienced absolute divergence in both earnings and income. However, further statistical analysis that incorporates cost of living, human capital, and other control factors indicates that conditional convergence at the county scale in New England was ongoing rapidly between 1970 and 1990 and appears to have been achieved by 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]