An Exception: OECD Economies

It isn't inevitable that there be such divergence. United States--with its 14 to 25-fold increase in output per worker over the years since 1870-hasn't been the fastest-growing economy in the world. Some other economies at different levels of development, industrialization and material productivity a century ago have now converged and their levels of productivity, economic structures and standards of living are now very close to those of the US. The six largest of these converging economies are today with United States so called Group-of-Seven the G-7 economies whose leaders gather for annual summit meetings. Their steady process of convergence to U.S. level from 1950 till 1990 is displayed in Figure below.