Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Specialisation and Convergence in European Regions

Contents:

Author Info

  • Enrico Marelli

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to analyze specialization and convergence of European countries and regions, within the framework of integration in the EU. This is important not only for long-term real convergence processes, but also for a proper functioning of the monetary union (in the line of research on the OCA's criteria, asymmetry of shocks and synchronization of business cycles). The position of new member states is particularly delicate, also considering the forthcoming adoption of the euro by some of them. As indicated by the EU Treaty, economic growth should be balanced with economic and social cohesion that includes a careful consideration of regional disparities. Our empirical investigation focuses on the regions of EU25, further broken up into other relevant groupings (EU15, EMU, and the new members' EU10 group), over the period from 1980 (or 1990 for EU10) to 2005. This paper considers a rather fine regional disaggregation (NUTS-2 level), counting 250 regions. The analysis of different indices of specialisation point to a prevalent increase of homogeneity of sector structures across European regions, although in some cases (especially in the industrial sector and in some services) specialisation has increased. For convergence, a sigma convergence's analysis confirms a reduction of disparities, both at a country and regional level. However, a trade-off between fast national growth and internal distribution has emerged in the early stages of development, as in the case of new members. Moreover, beta convergence has also been established - regarding per capita income, employment and productivity - for almost all territorial aggregates (excluding the new members since 1999). The addition of structural variables, following a beta-conditional approach, indicates a positive role for services and a negative impact of agriculture. Finally, some preliminary results have been obtained by the innovative inclusion of specialisation indices within convergence regressions.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://eaces.liuc.it/18242979200702/182429792007040203.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Cattaneo University (LIUC) in its journal The European Journal of Comparative Economics.

Volume (Year): 4 (2007)
Issue (Month): 2 (September)
Pages: 149-178

as in new window
Handle: RePEc:liu:liucej:v:4:y:2007:i:2:p:149-178

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Corso Matteotti 22 - Castellanza (VA) 21053
Phone: +39 (0)331-572 1
Fax: +39 (0)331-572 320
Email:
Web page: http://eaces.liuc.it/default.asp
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: regional economies; European regions; growth and convergence; specialisation;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Sergio Nardis & Alessandro Goglio & Marco Malgarini, 1996. "Regional specialization and shocks in Europe: Some evidence from regional data," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 197-214, September.
  2. Frankel, Jeffrey A & Rose, Andrew K, 1996. "The Endogeneity of the Optimum Currency Area Criteria," CEPR Discussion Papers 1473, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Fatás, Antonio, 1997. "EMU: Countries or Regions? Lessons from the EMS Experience," CEPR Discussion Papers 1558, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  4. Ben Gardiner & Ron Martin & Tyler Peter, 2004. "Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Growth across the European Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa04p333, European Regional Science Association.
  5. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Overman, Henry G., 2003. "The Spatial Distribution of Economic Activities in the EU," CEPR Discussion Papers 3999, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  6. Roberto Basile & Sergio de Nardis & Alessandro Girardi, 2001. "Regional inequalities and cohesion policies in the european union," ISAE Working Papers 23, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
  7. Fidrmuc, Jarko & Korhonen, Iikka, 2006. "Meta-analysis of the business cycle correlation between the euro area and the CEECs," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 518-537, September.
  8. Darvas, Zsolt & Szapáry, György, 2005. "Business Cycle Sychronization in the Enlarged EU," CEPR Discussion Papers 5179, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  9. André Sapir & Marco Buti, 1998. "Economic policy in EMU," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/8078, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  10. Uwe Böwer & Catherine Guillemineau, 2006. "Determinants of business cycle synchronisation across euro area countries," Working Paper Series 587, European Central Bank.
  11. Domenico Giannone & Lucrezia Reichlin, 2005. "Trends and cycles in the Euro Area: how much heterogeneity and should we worry about it?," Macroeconomics 0511016, EconWPA.
  12. De Grauwe, Paul & Mongelli, F, 2005. "Endogeneities of optimal currency areas: What brings countries sharing a single currency closer together?," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/120944, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  13. Tito Boeri & Katherine Terrell, 2001. "Institutional Determinants of Labor Reallocation in Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 384, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
  14. Ansgar Belke & Jens Michael Heine, 2002. "Specialisation Patterns and the Synchronicity of Regional Employment Cycles in Europe," Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim 210/2002, Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany.
  15. Ian Babetskii, 2005. "Trade integration and synchronization of shocks," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(1), pages 105-138, 01.
  16. Buiter, Willem H, 2004. "To Purgatory and Beyond: When and How Should the Accession Countries from Central and Eastern Europe Become Full Members of EMU?," CEPR Discussion Papers 4342, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  17. Ignazio Angeloni & Michael Flad & Francesco Paolo Mongelli, 2005. "Economic and monetary integration of the new Member States - helping to chart the route," Occasional Paper Series 36, European Central Bank.
  18. Michele Boldrin & Fabio Canova, 2001. "Inequality and convergence in Europe's regions: reconsidering European regional policies," Economic Policy, CEPR & CES & MSH, vol. 16(32), pages 205-253, 04.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Josef Novotný, 2010. "Regional Convergence, Divergence and Other Aspects of Distributional Dynamics of European Regions in the Period 1992-2006," Politická ekonomie, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 2010(2), pages 166-185.
  2. Marcello Signorelli & Enrico Marelli, 2007. "Institutional change, regional features and aggregate performance in eight EU’s transition countries," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 37/2007, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia, Finanza e Statistica.
  3. Novotný, JOSEF, 2011. "Convergence and divergence in living standards among regions of the enlarged European Union (1992-2006)," MPRA Paper 34145, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  4. Oana Ancuta Stangaciu, 2011. "The Dynamic Of Regional Trade Specialisation Pattern In Romania," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 3, pages 336-354, June.
  5. Triandafil, Cristina Maria, 2011. "The Analysis Of The Convergence Criteria. Empirical Perspective In The Context Of The Sustainable Character Highlight," Working Papers of National Institute of Economic Research 111205, National Institute of Economic Research.
  6. Enrico Marelli & Marcello Signorelli, 2010. "Employment, productivity and models of growth in the EU," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 31(7), pages 732-754, November.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:liu:liucej:v:4:y:2007:i:2:p:149-178

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Piero Cavaleri).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.