The empirical literature provides two stylized facts on long run

economic growth. First, cultural and geographical proximity matters for economic

growth. Certain cultural and regional groups achieve higher growth performance

in certain time periods. Second, although there is persistence in growth

performance, there are substantial relocations among the club of high performers,

and club membership. In this paper, we study the determinants of growth

performance and endogenous creation of growth clubs by using an evolutionary,

multi-country, firm based micro-simulation model. One of the main results is that

technological spillovers based on the proximity of a leader yield a higher world

growth than equally important spillovers among all countries, which may generate

a worldwide lock-in.