The parallel convergence of income and educational achievements: joint distribution dynamics

Abstract

Human capital is an important factor of economic growth. Previous studies show that convergence patterns of income and education differ on a regional level. The purpose of this article is to verify whether there is statistical relationship between the patterns of educational achievements convergence and income convergence processes in Poland on the regional and local level. The paper describes and applies an innovative way for the formal verification of similarities in convergence patterns on the basis of transition matrices and kernel density estimation. The analysis is performed on Polish data for educational achievements (lagged exam results of 15-year old pupils) and income per capita worker on the regional and local level for the period 2003–2015. Despite the occurrence of (weak) convergence for both phenomena, each has a different course. Therefore, the processes of the income convergence and educational achievements convergence in Poland were not parallel.