Browsing by Author "Valentsinovich, Hanna"
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- An analysis of economic convergence in EU from 2005 to 2016Publication . Valentsinovich, Hanna; Duarte, António J.S.T.; Petrushkevich, ElenaOne of the main priorities of the European Union is promoting growth-enhancing conditions and reducing inequalities between levels of development among its Member States, which are key targets of the European Cohesion Policy. Since its inception, the objective of the policy was defined as the promotion of convergence between EU regions, in particular economic convergence, the reduction of regional disparities in the level of development that has been measured as convergence of GDP per capita relative to the EU average. This indicator has become one of the main ways in evaluating the European Сohesion Policy’s effectiveness. The main purpose of this research is to assess if EU economies are converging. Therefore, the objectives of the research were: (1) to clarify the concepts of convergence: beta-convergence and sigma-convergence, (2) to review the different methods of convergence estimation and (3) to provide an update assessment of regional disparities in the European Union, using various estimation methods for the period from 2005 to 2016. For the study, it was used secondary data for 276 NUTS 2 level regions from Eurostat. The results of convergence estimation with help of Lorenz Curves, Gini coefficient and Robin Hood coefficient, kernel density estimation of the GDP per capita distribution and the cumulative frequency distribution curve showed existence of σ-convergence or reduction of disparities among regions in time. At the same time the results of increasing Variation coefficient detected divergence process. The results of linear regression analysis, Salter graph and Markov analysis of transition probability matrix indicated existence of β-convergence, defined as negative relationship between the initial income level and subsequent income growth rate. It means that poorer regions of EU tend to catch up with the rich ones in terms of the level of income per capita.