Convergence of EU regions – Measures and evolution

Summary:

This paper examines convergence among EU regions using different approaches and methodologies. The objective is twofold. On the one hand, the paper conducts an update assessment of regional disparities in the EU bringing together the most frequent instruments used in the analysis of convergence and inequalities.
On the other hand, the paper takes the opportunity to clarify the concepts of convergence and discuss the various measures as well as the underlying methodologies. The paper builds on both a literature review and original calculations. For the sake of concision, convergence is only examined under the dimension of GDP per head at the level of the EU NUTS 2 regions; however these methods and measures can of course be applied to other economic
indicators and/or to other geographical units.

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