Abramovitz's Catch-Up Growth Hypothesis: An Analysis of its Origin and Possible Applications for Eastern Europe
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Authors
Litvak, Austin
Issue Date
2005
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
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Abstract
Moses Abramovitz's theory, known as the Catch-Up Growth Hypothesis,
attempted to explain what caused Western Europe's Golden Era of economic growth
from 1948 until1972. The Catch-Up Growth Hypothesis essentially stated that the key
to the economic growth experienced by Western Europe was their ability to import and
implement technology from the United States. To be able to accomplish this task, a
country must have certain prerequisites ranging from proper human capital investment to
proper laws to protect investors and their investments. The purpose of this Senior
Individualized Project was to examine the literature from which Abramovitz was able to
derive his theory and then attempt to see if this theory is applicable for the countries of
Eastern Europe today through a statistical analysis of key economic variables. In
particular, I was interested in any correlations between the growth of the countries of
Western Europe and membership in the predecessor organizations to the European
Union. After performing a literature review and a statistical analysis of available data, I
found that there was a correlation between Abramovitz's theory and the statistical data.
In addition, I found a correlation existed between the growth of the countries of Westem
Europe and their membership in the predecessor organizations to the European Union. It
is my recommendation that, once the data becomes available, this topic should be
revisited in the future so as to determine if any correlations exist for Eastern European
growth levels and membership in the European Union.
Description
108 p.
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