What Does the Solow Model Tell Us about Economic Growth?

This paper presents, within a framework of the Solow model, evidence that there are significant differences in convergence patterns across subsamples. It shows that although OECD countries and the countries converging to their steady states from above follow a pattern of conditional convergence, those converging to their steady states from below do not. This result is best explained by the idea that technology diffusion has a large effect mainly on the countries converging to their steady states from below.