Open AccessEVIDENCE FOR ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE IN THE EU: THE ANALYSIS OF PAST EU ENLARGEMENTS
Author(s) -
Wadim Strielkowski,
Felix Höschle
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
technological and economic development of economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.634
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 2029-4921
pISSN - 2029-4913
DOI - 10.3846/20294913.2014.890138
Subject(s) - convergence (economics) , european union , per capita , member states , cluster (spacecraft) , economics , international trade , international economics , macroeconomics , computer science , demography , population , sociology , programming language
This paper discusses the evidence of economic convergence in the European Union during the past several decades and consecutive EU enlargements. We cluster different member states of the European Union by groups representing countries that joined the EU together and analyze whether these clusters converge against each other. In addition, we analyse whether there is a convergence within different groups of countries. We employ real GDP per capita in its seasonally adjusted version as the measure of convergence. Our results reveal that there is not much evidence about the existence of economic convergence within the European Union.