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Groningen Growth and Development CentrePart of University of Groningen
Groningen Growth and Development Centre
Faculty of Economics and Business
Groningen Growth and Development Centre
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GGDC News

GGDC RM 200

Do Countries Need “Absorptive Capacity” to Benefit from Foreign Investment?

Date:02 February 2026

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is often seen as a powerful engine of economic growth. Yet policymakers are frequently told that attracting FDI is not enough: countries must first build “absorptive capacity” through better education, deeper financial...

International income inequality since 1990

Penn World Table version 11.0 is published

Date:07 October 2025
Today we released version 11.0 of the Penn World Table (PWT). This new version covers 185 countries and years through 2023. We incorporate the newest data on comparative prices and provide estimates of income and productivity growth and comparative levels.
GGDC Research Memorandum 199

New Research Sheds Light on How Skill Mismatches Shape Productivity Gaps

Date:05 September 2025

A new study, “How important is human capital misallocation across sectors for aggregate productivity differences? Evidence beyond Cobb-Douglas,” by Jan Trenczek (Prognos AG) and Konstantin M. Wacker (University of Groningen), reconsiders how much...

GGDC Research Memorandum 198

New GGDC Research Highlights Agriculture’s Surprising Role in Global Productivity Convergence

Date:20 June 2025

A new paper by Robert Inklaar and Ryan Marapin, "Accounting for productivity convergence: sectors and structural change," offers fresh insights into the forces behind global labour productivity convergence from 1990 to 2018.

Abe de Jong receives NWO grant for project on the effects of slavery in the Dutch Caribbean colonies

Date:25 November 2024

Professor Abe de Jong has received a grant of €838.000 from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for a project titled “Collateral damage: The financial economics of slavery”.

Alan Heston (1934-2024)

Date:26 October 2024
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Alan Heston, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the original architects of the Penn World Table (PWT). His pioneering work in international price comparisons and economic measurement has profoundly shaped our understanding of global economic development and living standards.

Veni grant for Amaury de Vicq de Cumptich

Date:17 October 2024
Amaury de Vicq de Cumptich has received a Veni grant of 320,000 euros from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The newly appointed assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business’ Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance was awarded the grant for his research on the distribution of colonial profits in the Netherlands.
Average world income, year 1–2022

Nobel Prize 2024 Awarded for Groundbreaking Work on Institutions and Prosperity

Date:14 October 2024
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson for their pioneering studies on how institutions are formed and how they affect prosperity. Important in motivating their research and quantifying income differences and growth over the (very) long run is the work by Angus Maddison. His work lives on at the GGDC as part of the Maddison Project Database.
8th World KLEMS Conference

Call for papers: 8th World KLEMS Conference in Tokyo

Date:08 July 2024

The 8th World KLEMS Conference will be held on March 27-28, 2025 in Tokyo. This is the second World KLEMS Conference in Tokyo, with the first one held in 2014. This conference is organized by Gakushuin University, Hitotsubashi University, and Research...

Douglas Gollin

2024 Maddison Lecture by Douglas Gollin

Date:16 May 2024

On May 30,  Douglas Gollin  of Tufts and Oxford University will give the 2024 Maddison Lecture. Gollin will speak on the topic of Structural Transformation and Growth. Economists have long recognised that for a country to develop, its economy should...

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