Contributors -- I Some General Remarks on the Process of Catching Up -- Introduction and Summary -- 1 What a Country Must Do to Catch Up to the Industrial Leaders -- 2 Elections, Political Checks and Balances, and Growth -- II Case Studies of Successes and Failures in Catching Up -- 3 The Nordic Countries in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Economic Growth in a Comparative Perspective -- 4 The Experimentalist-Convergence Debate on Interpreting China's Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Perspective -- 5 Successes and Failures in Real Convergence: The Case of Chile -- 6 Economic Resurgence in the Commonwealth of Independent States -- III Consequences of Accession to the European Union: Case Studies -- 7 Spain in the EU: The Key Issues -- 8 The Spanish Experience in the European Union -- 9 Portugal's Convergence Process: Lessons for Accession Countries -- 10 Greece: The Long Process of Economic and Institutional Convergence -- 11 The Convergence Experience of the Greek Economy in the EU: Lessons for the EU Accession Countries -- 12 Real Convergence within the European Union: The Case of Ireland -- 13 Irish Economic Development in an International Perspective -- IV EMU Entry and Economic Growth -- 14 When Should the Central Europeans Join the EMU? Reconciling Real and Nominal Convergence -- 15 Is Full Participation in the EMU Likely to Favor or Slow Real Convergence? -- V Conclusion -- 16 Concluding Comments -- Index.