Inequality in EMU: is there a core periphery dualism?

Income inequality has a minor role in the European integration process’ institutional framework. This is particularly unfitting given that reducing disparities has been one of the most explicit and resolute goals of the EU, which has consequently devoted an increasing share of its budget to regional policy. This issue has potentially relevant policy implications because if EMU does not converge endogenously and increases inequalities more efforts to reform European governance and more strict policy coordination among members are needed to limit the risk of a break-up. In fact, recent events proved that inequality concerns in combination with other factors can boost protest vote. This paper intends to assess inequality determinants in EMU countries and whether the European economic integration within the broader globalization process has been itself among them. We run an empirical analysis on a panel of 17 EU members in the period 1980 and 2015. Our contribution to the existing literature in twofold: i) it focused on the effects of globalization on inequality in EMU 15 over the last 25 years, ii) it tries to identify the separate effects of globalization on core and periphery and new entrants EMU members shedding some light on the mechanisms behind the so called “core periphery dualism”.