Research on convergence deals with the question of whether regional disparities are decreasing over time. Aiming to decompose EU disparities covering regions of all levels, this paper fills the gap of the empirical research on convergence in the EU in the following ways: (i) the research updates the assessment of regional disparities in the EU emphasizing, but not limited to, the analysis at the NUTS 3 level; (ii) based on a constructed three-level Theil index, the research decomposes EU disparities into between-country, within-country at the NUTS 2 level, and within the NUTS 2 region at the NUTS 3 level components, covering the period of 1995-2014 and all EU regions, (iii) it examines the linkages between the development of innovation and technology, sustainability, and evolution of disparities. Our main findings suggest that convergence in the EU is still present at different regional levels, but its speed is slowing down. Total EU disparities were decreasing mainly because of reducing disparities between member states. At the same time, in the majority of EU member states, old and new, within-country disparities were growing at all regional levels, and now within-country disparities account for almost two-fifths of total EU disparities.
One of the most pressing problems nowadays attracting attention of EU citizens is the integration of immigrants. During the recent period immigration flows to the EU, especially external, were growing considerably-the number of international immigrants in the EU has increased by 57.5 percent over 2000-2015. One of the factors leading to successful integration of immigrants is attitudes towards them regarding their impact on countries' socioeconomic , cultural or other transformation. Empirical studies show that immigration can lead to both positive and negative effects on countries' demography, economy, culture and criminogenic situation depending on the immigrants' education, age, gender and other characteristics. Nevertheless, even if immigration leads to a positive transformation of the country, society's attitude towards immigration can be negative and this can complicate the process of integration. For this reason, it is important to investigate not only the effects of immigration on countries' demography, economy, culture and other areas, but also to investigate society's attitudes towards benefits and losses of immigration. We employed binary logistic regression to analyse the EU society's attitudes towards consequences of immigration. The results show that public attitudes toward consequences of immigration are largely negative, especially towards impact on criminogenic situation and this does not match actual impact empirically researched by other authors and presented in the literature review.
Abstract. In this research, we investigate the impact of human capital on labour productivity in European Union member states using panel data analysis. Results of the paper are estimated using the Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and Fixed effects model (FEM). The results show that human capital is positively significant in improving the growth of labour productivity in the EU. Our estimates also suggest that the impact occurs after three times lags in case of education expenditure.
Reduction of the territorial disparities in terms of their development level is the main aim of the European Union’s (EU’s) regional support. Most of the previous studies investigate the linear relationship between support and growth at countries’ or NUTS1/2 disaggregation level, omitting the question on what is the impact of this support on regional convergence among NUTS3 regions and on whether non-linear effects occur. To fill this gap, we modified the difference-in-differences estimator to test empirically the non-linear convergence effects of the EU’s regional support at NUTS 3 level over the 2000-2006 programming period, taking into account the possible lagging effect. The results revealed that the impact of regional support on convergence is positive with the diminishing marginal effect as the intensity of payments is increasing. Moreover, we find evidence that the return is higher for the post-intervention compared with the intervention period, i.e. the convergence outcomes of the EU’s support occur in the long-run.
Traditionally, infrastructure has been considered an essential component of a country’s development. Therefore, European Union (EU) Member States (MS) invest heavily in this area. A lot of support for infrastructure development is also directed from the EU Structural Funds (SF). However, the results of previous studies do not fully reveal whether the development of infrastructure contributes to EU MS’ economic growth and what factors mediate this effect. Considering the limitations of previous studies, this article aims to examine whether the development of different types of infrastructure (transport, information and communication technologies (ICT), energy, and water and sanitation) contribute to economic growth and to assess whether government quality affects the growth outcomes of infrastructure. Empirical estimations are based on neoclassical specifications and cover 28 EU countries from 2000 to 2019. Estimates revealed that all types of infrastructure positively correlate with growth but not all correlations are significant. Only mobile cellular, which proxies ICT infrastructure, electricity production, which proxies energy infrastructure, and pipeline transport infrastructure significantly affect economic growth. Water and sanitation infrastructure development do not significantly contribute to EU MS’ economic growth. The institutional environment, i.e., less corruption, has a considerable positive effect on the growth outcomes of electricity production and pipeline transport infrastructure.
The role of institutions in shaping geography of development disparities across European Union Assessing the effect of regional financial support provided by the European Union (EU), research examines whether support promotes growth, increases productivity and creates new jobs. Scientific studies rarely discuss the effect of support in the light of the geography of development disparities despite the fact that cohesion is the ultimate goal of the EU's regional policy. Moreover, previous contributions show the importance of factors that condition the effect of support, thus raising the question of the heterogeneity of effects across regions. In the light of these facts, this paper aims to propose a model that supplements a new strand of literature based on a quasiexperimental approach and to assess the effect of support on territorial disparities capturing its heterogeneity. An empirical application is based on NUTS 3 level data over the 2000-2006 programming period (PP) and an estimation of the effects on the dynamics of disparities between support beneficiaries and developed regions. Results show that support diminishes disparities and that the significance and size of the effect are highly conditioned on the institutional quality in the region.
Core infrastructure, which covers transportation, information and communication (ICT), energy, water and sanitation systems, plays a significant role in economic growth. The development of core infrastructure – one of the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy (CP) priorities – is heavily funded. However, it remains unclear whether these investments achieve the main aim, i.e. contribute to economic growth and convergence between EU countries and especially regions. A theoretical model addressing the identified issues is needed to assess the impact of infrastructure on economic growth and convergence comprehensively and as accurately as possible. To reach this aim, first, we have disclosed the definition of infrastructure and its structure. Also, we discussed different approaches to the relationship between infrastructure and economic growth. We developed a theoretical model for evaluating infrastructure impact on economic growth and convergence. Moreover, based on the neoclassical approach, we specified an econometric model that includes indicators of different types of infrastructure and assessed growth and convergence outcomes of infrastructure development. Even though we find that infrastructure positively affects growth and convergence, the estimated impact is not statistically significant except for some types of ICT and transport infrastructure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.