Figure 1. Per Capita GDP in 1950 and 2009 (as % of U.S. per cap GDP)
Source: Penn World Table Version 7.0.
Against the previous record, the sample of European and Asian countries under consideration drastically reduced their relative income gap with the United States, chopping an average of 42 percentage points between 1950 and 2009. This performance reaches unparalleled proportions in the case of Korea (KOR) and Chinese Taipei (TWN), both with an initial income lower than Brazil, yet reducing the gap with the income of the United States by 49 and 68 percentage points, respectively.
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Š OECD 2012