IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofecr/341668.html

How far are we from the single market in Europe? An analysis of price level convergence

Author

Listed:
  • Hukkinen, Juhana
  • Virén, Matti E. E.

Abstract

This paper examines price level differences and their evolvement over time across the European Union to find out how far we are from the Single Market that is cornerstone of European integration. The central question is how large these differences are and how they have evolved during the EMU period. This second question gives rise to several related issues: How much does the degree of convergence vary across countries? Has the speed of convergence changed over time? And what factors drive the eventual change and differences in convergence speeds? We find that the average speed of convergence is around 6 per cent. Although this speed has fluctuated over time, it shows no clear long-term trend after the early years of EMU. The convergence parameter appears to be systematically related to certain background variables - most importantly, the overall level of living standards and the size of the initial price level gap. Also, the overall inflation regime makes a difference.

Suggested Citation

  • Hukkinen, Juhana & Virén, Matti E. E., 2026. "How far are we from the single market in Europe? An analysis of price level convergence," BoF Economics Review 2/2026, Bank of Finland.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofecr:341668
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/341668/1/197413007X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mikhail Golosov & Robert E. Lucas Jr., 2007. "Menu Costs and Phillips Curves," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(2), pages 171-199.
    2. Garcia-Hiernaux, Alfredo & Gonzalez-Perez, Maria T. & Guerrero, David E., 2023. "Eurozone prices: A tale of convergence and divergence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sarah Arndt & Zeno Enders, 2023. "The Transmission of Supply Shocks in Different Inflation Regimes," CESifo Working Paper Series 10839, CESifo.
    2. Carvalho, Carlos & Schwartzman, Felipe, 2015. "Selection and monetary non-neutrality in time-dependent pricing models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 141-156.
    3. Klaus Adam & Henning Weber, 2023. "Estimating the Optimal Inflation Target from Trends in Relative Prices," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 1-42, July.
    4. Adam Elbourne & Debby Lanser & Bert Smid & Martin Vromans, 2008. "Macroeconomic resilience in a DSGE model," CPB Discussion Paper 96.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Mina Kim & Deokwoo Nam & Jian Wang & Jason J. Wu, 2013. "International trade price stickiness and exchange rate pass-through in micro data: a case study on U.S.–China trade," Globalization Institute Working Papers 135, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    6. Hobijn, Bart & Nechio, Fernanda & Shapiro, Adam Hale, 2021. "Using Brexit to identify the nature of price rigidities," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Ko Munakata & Takeshi Shinohara & Shigenori Shiratsuka & Nao Sudo & Tsutomu Watanabe, 2023. "On the Source of Seasonality in Price Changes: The Role of Seasonality in Menu Costs," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2023-016, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    8. Abdelraouf, Nadine & Noureldin, Diaa, 2022. "The impact of the exchange rate regime on the dispersion of the price-change distribution: Evidence from a large panel of countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Burdett, Kenneth & Menzio, Guido, 2017. "The (Q,S,s) pricing rule: a quantitative analysis," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 784-797.
    10. Shirota, Toyoichiro, 2017. "Not All Exchange Rate Movements Are Alike : Exchange Rate Persistence and Pass-Through to Consumer Prices," Discussion paper series. A 311, Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, Hokkaido University.
    11. Pierpaolo Benigno & Luca Antonio Ricci, 2011. "The Inflation-Output Trade-Off with Downward Wage Rigidities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1436-1466, June.
    12. Juillard, Michael & Kamenik, Ondra & Kumhof, Michael & Laxton, Douglas, 2008. "Optimal price setting and inflation inertia in a rational expectations model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 2584-2621, August.
    13. Mark Gertler & John Leahy, 2008. "A Phillips Curve with an Ss Foundation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(3), pages 533-572, June.
    14. Ashraf, Quamrul & Gershman, Boris & Howitt, Peter, 2016. "How Inflation Affects Macroeconomic Performance: An Agent-Based Computational Investigation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 558-581, March.
    15. Claudio Michelacci & Luigi Paciello, 2020. "Ambiguous Policy Announcements," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2356-2398.
    16. Luigi Paciello & Mirko Wiederholt, 2014. "Exogenous Information, Endogenous Information, and Optimal Monetary Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 356-388.
    17. Maarten Dossche, 2009. "Understanding Inflation Dynamics.Where Do We Stand?," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(2), pages 209-227.
    18. Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler, 2007. "Macroeconomic Modeling for Monetary Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 25-46, Fall.
    19. Emmanuel Dhyne & Jerzy Konieczny, 2014. "Aggregation And The Staggering Of Price Changes," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 732-756, April.
    20. Bajari, P. & Cen, Z. & Chernozhukov, V. & Manukonda, M. & Vijaykumar, S. & Wang, J. & Huerta, R. & Li, J. & Leng, L. & Monokroussos, G. & Wang, S., 2025. "Hedonic prices and quality adjusted price indices powered by AI," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • P20 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:bofecr:341668. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofgvfi.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.