This paper aims to explore the evolutionary dynamics of per capita income among Islamic and non Islamic economies over the period of 1960-2009. First, the behavior of dynamics of relative per capita income over time is analyzed by visual inspection of their non-parametric density distributions. Next, we employ the Markov chains approach to predict a pattern of convergence among the two groups of countries. Our tentative conclusions that can be drawn from the three analyses are as follows. First, there is a high level of persistence in the relative position of Islamic economies, consistent with a low degree of mobility in the income distribution. Second, the non Islamic economies tend to polarize gradually, which may be attributed to externalities linked to localization or to the proximity economic relationship among the countries. Those findings suggest that cross countries reallocation to the economic resources seems to have fostered growth of per capita income in those countries that have experienced it over time.

Keyword:Islamic and Non Islamic Economies, Convergence, Polarization, Kernel Densities, Markov Chains

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