Journal Article
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Solow-Swan’s proposition that poorer countries grow faster than
richer countries causing declining income disparities across countries. The role of coffee trade in income
convergence is also analyzed to enrich our understanding of whether traditional cash export crops, like coffee,
contribute significantly to income convergence. We found that, GDP per capita was growing faster among coffee
producers than coffee re-exporters, supporting the Solow-Swan’s model. However, coffee export values and
shares decreased with convergence for green coffee producers while increasing among re-exporters, implying
unequal distribution of benefits along the global coffee value chain.