What about regions in regional science? A convergence exercise using different geographic scales of European Union

The choice of the spatial scale of analysis is a problematic issue in applied research, particularly in the literature of regional economic growth. Nevertheless, it is evident that regional scientists have been slow at demonstrating the empirical implications of changes in spatial scale of analysis which is usually known as the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). The aim of this paper is to examine the alterations in the empirical results caused by the use of different spatial scales in the analysis of the convergence process of European Union (EU15) regions by systematically applying a method to examine this phenomenon at a single scale across multiple scales, namely, NUTS1, NUTS2 and NUTS3, between 2000 and 2008. The results suggest that convergence pattern of EU regions depends on the spatial scale of analysis and that convergence occurs within countries at finer scales (NUTS3 level) rather than between EU countries. Furthermore, these findings hold when we correct our econometric specifications for spatial dependence.