Testing the Convergence Hypothesis for OECD Countries: RALS Panel Fourier SURADF Unit Root Test

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to improve the SURADF panel unit root test of Breur et al. (2001) by considering structural breaks and the knowledge of non-normal distrubited residuals. Chang et al. (2012) introduce a new panel unit root test by allowing smooth structural breaks in SURADF test process. In this study, we also take into account of the information of the residuals that are nonnormally distrubited. We test the validity of stochastic convergence among 18 OECD countries using this newly suggested test and find supportive evidence of convergence for only seven countries.