PRODUCT MARKET REGULATION AND PRODUCTIVITY CONVERGENCE.

The article investigates the link between anti-competitive product market regulations and the international diffusion of productivity shocks using a productivity model that relates productivity growth to improvements in the global technology frontier and the speed of the catch up process. Aside from looking at the prima facie evidence of a link, it also investigates two channels through which regulations that curb competition might affect the diffusion of best practice production techniques. It builds on the work of economists C. Gust and J. Marquez and G. Nicoletti et al, in particular.