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This paper contributes to the growing body of literature exploring the ramifications of AI-driven technological singularity and its economic implications. The exploration unfolds in three key segments. First, it sheds light on the concepts of artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI superintelligence, and singularity itself. Subsequently, it discusses the AI alignment problem, addressing the potential outcomes of superintelligent AI on human civilisation. Further, Giddens’ structuration theory is used to highlight the prominent role of AI-based “authoritative resources” in determining the allocation of resources and ensuring distributive justice in a techno-utopian society. The paper also explores the idea of utopia and the “end of history” and concludes with the suggestion that achieving a technological utopia with superintelligent AI is a mechanism design problem.

AbstractThis paper uses a structural approach to analyse economic convergence within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries. This Regional Economic Community has recorded several postponements of the convergence horizon defined by the Economic Commission. However, it is a framework that is supposed to lead to economic growth and living conditions. So, we estimate a structural convergence model over 1996–2021 for the WAEMU panel of countries. We apply the Generalized Moment Method to address the endogeneity issue in evaluating the coefficient. The analysis confirms no economic convergence within WAEMU countries during this period. This finding means that the economic structures of the WAEMU countries do not come closer over time. Therefore, policymakers must continue implementing initiatives to harmonise regional policies and reinvigorate the regional economic program.

Fostering economic, social and territorial cohesion has represented a key principle since the foundation of the European Economic Community. Gradually, the gaps between countries and regions have become more prominent, the European Union reaffirming its commitment towards supporting convergence of the less developed Members. The main purpose of this paper was to study the regional convergence patterns, focusing on the key concepts β- and σconvergence. Considering the interval 2000-2021, we have illustrated that the initially less developed NUTS 2 regions from Central and Eastern Europe experienced higher growth rates compared to the developed ones. Moreover, by estimating cross-sectional regressions, we have found evidence in favor of a universal speed of convergence, with an average catching-up rate among the European regions of 1.9% per year. Complementary, based on σ-convergence, we have illustrated that income disparities diminished between 2000 and 2021 both at the aggregate level and considering the regions from Central and Eastern Europe. However, the Covid-19 pandemic reversed the favorable trend, determining an increase of income gaps among regions, the most affected being the economies belonging to the Old Members. The study draws attention that economic cohesion is an objective difficult to achieve, the crises reversing the favorable trend identified in the first decade of the 21st century.

Background: The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union aims at a balanced territorial development and economic convergence of the rural areas. However, in some cases, EU rural funding didn't manage to reduce the gaps between regions, but quite the contrary, the wealthiest regions attracted most of the resources. Purpose: The main objective of the paper was to assess whether EAFRD funding reached the most vulnerable areas. This is a measure of the contribution of CAP to economic convergence. Study design/methodology/approach: Cluster analysis was performed on Galaţi County in Romania. The analysis was performed at LAU level, considering four variables: population, poverty, agricultural area and the value of implemented EAFRD projects. Findings/conclusions: The analysis concluded five clusters, with poorer areas receiving less funding, calling for better development strategies, focused on the central, northern and northeastern parts of the county, where these areas are concentrated. Also, territorial reorganization of rural areas may be necessary in some cases, in order to address the uneven development and poverty. Limitations/future research: The present research focused only on EAFRD funding related to agricultural exploitations. For more precise conclusions and recommendations, further research will also need to include other EAFRD submeasures.

Extensive review of academic writings on the convergence of religions (COR) in Nigeria shows that many online academic papers and related conversations gave more attention to its negative implications. Agreeably, Nigeria is the hotbed of religious crises in Africa. However, with the benefits of hindsight, filling the gap of insufficient capture of the positive impact of COR is considered in this exercise with three questions in view: (1) Where do religions meet? (2) Why do religions meet? (3) What are the positive implications of their convergence in Nigeria? Answers were adequately captured with examples, scenarios, case studies, historical evidence, and concomitant academic literature. Overall, this exercise projected three arguments. Firstly, it posited that commitment to religion is not at the heart of COR in Nigeria, rather, COR is premised on personal or group interests. Secondly, it argued that positive reflections on the COR can promote inter-religious tolerance, peace, and unity. Thirdly, it proposed that the COR has far-reaching positive implications socially, politically, and economically. Lastly, it made brief recommendations for improved co-existence and nation-building. Contribution: This article contributes to inter-religious dialogue in Africa as it focuses on the social, political and economic value of religion in Nigeria.

The most important trends in the modern economy are convergence – the process of convergence of activities of various economic entities and digitalization. Their interaction creates new opportunities for increasing the competitiveness and efficiency of insurance companies. The purpose of the paper is to identify economic convergence processes taking place on the Russian insurance market, which, when using different digitalization products, lead to new business models of partnership. The results of the conducted empirical analysis confirm the existence of economic convergence processes at all levels (intra-segment, intersegment and inter-sectoral) on the Russian insurance market. The proof of this is the significant reduction in the number of insurers in 2021 to 158, compared to 600 insurers in 2011. Over the past three years, the share of sales of insurance products with the participation of banks acting as intermediaries in the sales of insurance services has increased by 1.5 times. Also, along with insurance companies, health care companies have increasingly become involved in such operations. Digitalization products (information technologies (IT); IT and IT platforms; IT, IT platforms and networks) have a huge impact on the forms of organizing joint business with the participation of insurance companies. Some insurance companies do not provide opportunities to issue an insurance policy online or pay an insurance premium, i.e. they use sites for only minor customer interactions. Most often, Russian insurance companies use mobile applications. The impact of various digitalization products at different levels of economic convergence of insurers initiates multivariate business models of joint business.

This paper aims to model the convergence of economic development of Albania within the Western Balkans and in the context of European integration aspirations of the region. The conclusion of this paper is that the Balkan countries have converged among themselves and toward European Union (EU). But the speed of the convergence is moderated with the hit of global crisis and the recovery still seems difficult to the rate of pre-crisis. As economies in transition that are attempting to converge with the European development stages, the economies of the Balkan countries have to go through structural evolutions that are similar among countries. The variables used in this study are the income per capita, growth rate, sector contribution to GDP growth and the added value per worker in agriculture. The data is measured for the period from 1995 to 2015 in order to establish a substantial data series for trend analysis and understanding if countries in the study are converging or diverging with EU in terms of their income and economies profile. The issue of the productivity and further specialization of their output by using their advantages in resources comes into question.

This paper is organized as follows: the first part briefly outlines the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) theory. The second part focuses on the methodology used in the analysis, while the results of the analysis itself are presented in the third section. The final part of the paper provides conclusions and discussions of the main results. The aims of the article. The aims of the article is to evaluate one of the conditions of the OCA theory – the convergence criterion. The results of the analysis. This paper deals with determining the factors that impact the convergence of the Czech economy to the economy of Eurozone. Moreover, it attempts to determine the level of economic convergence in the EU using the β-convergence and σ-convergence techniques. The existence of this convergence is one of the necessary conditions for the creation of Monetary Union as stems from the Optimal Currency Area theory. The paper employs the OCA theory as the key theoretical basis for empirical analysis and evaluates the cyclical and structural synchronization by the means of correlation coefficients of the GDP development, industrial production, inflation and interest rates. It should be noticed that the Czech economy is constantly not synchronized with the Eurozone in terms of demand shocks which might be seen as a potential problem. As far as the international comparison goes, the Czech Republic is convergent with the core of Eurozone countries, possibly even more than some EA member states. This fact demonstrates the undisputable level of heterogeneity in the Monetary Union. When it comes to the existence of economic convergence among the current EU member states during the time period of 1995-2012, the main findings can be summarized as follows: there was σ-convergence during the whole period concerned among the EU27, with some shorter sub-periods of divergence (as in the late 1990s and in 2009-2010). Moreover, there is quite a robust evidence of the existence of β-convergence in 1995-2012 since the relatively poor states grew on average faster than the rich ones. The pace of catching up increased after the EU Eastern Enlargement in 2004. In addition, in the 1990s we detected no convergence, while in the pre-crisis 2000s we found evidence for the convergence being the fastest and the most robust. Since the start of the world economic and financial crisis (from 2008 onwards), the convergence was not detected. Conclusions and directions of further researches. The results point out at the considerable level of convergence of the Czech economy (except the shock analysis), even though the values seem to be overvalued due to the recent economic and financial crisis. But now it appears that it is optimal to keep the Czech crown as the national currency for some time yet although the level of convergence probably improves over time.

The European Union has overcome complex challenges since its foundation, being considered a successful story and a guarantor of political and economic stability within the European continent. However, the subsequent waves of enlargement of the European group have been accompanied by an increase of economic and social disparities between countries and regions. The main purpose of this paper is to study income convergence in the European Union by focusing on the regions at NUTS 2 level. In this respect, we have tested the neoclassical growth model assumptions, using the (unconditional) β- and σ-convergence indicators for 236 regions between 2000 and 2018. We have also tried to identify the winning regions of the catching-up process in Central and Eastern Europe. Our study confirms the neoclassical growth model assumptions considering that the less developed regions from Central and Eastern Europe experienced higher GDP growth rates than the developed ones. However, in some Central and Eastern European countries, the improvement of the economic performances of the capitals was accompanied by an increase of income disparities at national level. Overall, our study suggests that Central and Eastern European regions have made impressive progress since 2000, the main winners being the capitals. In contrast, some of the regions from Southern Europe are on a downward path, with negative growth rates, which pose into question the objective of convergence in the European Union.

This paper analyzes the European innovation framework focusing on four Eurozone candidates: Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic. In the last decades, almost two-thirds of Europe’s economic growth has been driven by innovation. This idea is supported by impressive scientific findings concerning the correlation between innovation and economic growth. We believe that better innovation performance stimulates economic convergence and in the long term, facilitates the candidates’ transition towards Euro currency adoption. The countries in the study demonstrate a low innovative performance pattern, as our SWOT analysis will show. First, the gross domestic expenditure on research and development levels are far below the Union average. Secondly, there is a lack of cooperation between the academic and business sector, leading to a decreasing number of skilled personnel in the innovation industries. Lastly, these countries are suffering from an incoherent strategy aimed at reducing the productivity gap between domestic and foreign-owned firms. In order for these CEE Eurozone candidates to improve their European Innovation Score and their competitiveness, we recommend increasing investments in R&D, infrastructure, education, healthcare, clean energy and shifting towards higher value-added activities. We are also suggesting supporting digital innovation hubs, the creation of new companies, and facilitating access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses.

After more than five decades since the problem of the European monetary integration has been introduced into the arena of the politic debates and after almost two decades of changes towards a viable functioning of the Euro Area, it is interesting to make a review of this process and of its main challenges. The paper tries to provide an overall image of the European monetary integration process, evaluating it from the perspective of several elements that are important for this attempt. Besides the presentation of the historical facts from the Euro adoption, the paper also presents some challenges to the process of monetary integration in Europe, on the short-term.

Convergence has always been considered the fundamental economic mechanism and precondition for achieving socio-economic cohesion in the European Union, so an important task for the Romanian Government is to reduce regional disparities in Romania. In this paper we will attempt to perform a descriptive analysis of inequality and convergence between and within CEE states using the most recent available data of relevant indicators for the analyzed topic.

This paper reviews a number of methods and instruments developed for the analysis of economic inequalities and that can be used for examining territorial disparities in Romania. The objective of the paper was to produce an update analysis of the convergence process among Romanian regions in light of a panel of these instruments, specific for the measurement of sigma-convergence. By using EUROSTAT data for 200-2011, several indexes were computed and their evolution is analysed. Romania experienced a process of economic divergence, a process of widening of inequalities between regions and counties. The process is more visibile at regions level. Territorial inequalities are explained in a proportion of 71,67%-84,24% by the inter-group component (inter-regions), the intra-group component (intra-regions or among counties) being less important.

Business cycle synchronization represents a condition for the successful implementation of the common monetary policy within the Economic and Monetary Union. There is a tight relation between business cycle synchronization and the economic convergence of the Member States of the Monetary Union. Investigating the specialized literature, this study analyses below the factors which influence the synchronization of the economic fluctuations of the economies in the Euro area. A second objective of this study is represented by the pointing out of the evolution of the synchronization process of the business cycle after the adoption of the euro, in the euro area countries by reference to the empiric evidence. The hypothesis of the study states that the introduction of the unique currency in 1999 resulted into the increase of the synchronization degree of the business cycle.

This paper compares and contrasts the policy reform experiences of Poland and Turkey en route to high income. For both countries, globalization has presented unprecedented opportunities to catch up, unleased by integration into European and global markets and the establishment of macroeconomic discipline. These opportunities were reinforced by the creation of economic institutions to strengthen competition and support private entrepreneurship, catalyzed by the convergence process with the European Union. Both Poland and Turkey have shown resilience following the 2008 global crisis, but continued success will require renewed structural reform measures. Dealing with the challenging of aging while at the same time finding a way to sustain productivity growth through greater domestic innovation is shaping Poland’s policy agenda. Turkey's structural and demographic potential as well as its strategic location between the markets of Europe and Asia offers attractive value proposition to investors, which could be further enhanced with improvements in business regulations and economic governance.

Czechs and Slovaks lived in a common country from 1918 to 1992, and in May 2004 the Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the EU together; nevertheless, these two countries took different paths towards the Eurozone. On January 1, 2009 Slovakia became the 16th member state of the Eurozone, while the Czech Republic has not yet determined a specific timetable to enter the Eurozone. In this paper, our main objective is to answer the following questions: Why did the Czech Republic and Slovakia make different strategic choices on the issue of euro introduction? How could Slovakia, a country with unfavourable initial conditions of transformation, quickly achieve the full compliance of the Maastricht convergence criteria? How is Slovakia’s experience in the Eurozone? Compared with the Czech Republic, which has not introduced the euro, is the Slovak economic situation better or not? Which economic consequences did the Eurozone debt crisis bring to Slovakia and how does it affect the decision of the other Central European countries, including the Czech Republic, about euro adoption?

In 1961, in the earlier stage of the European integration, professor Bela Balassa proposed a five successive phase model. Today, the half century experience on integration and corresponding literature issued lets us see rather two big phases (instead of five). The one would be the incipient integration, that came to enlarge the economic openess and internationalization and shaped: (i) free trade area (FTA) and (ii) customs union; the other would be the advanced integration, in which internationalization would be replaced by the unique-common market and other two commandments would replace or just reshape the older FTA and customs union into: (iii) economic convergence and (iv) optimal currency area. The last two will be emphasized by our paper, as for their current description-analysis in the literature

In the European Union there is a constant concern for the implementation and support processes of convergence in all areas of economic and social development. In this regard, on 17 June 2010 the European Council adopted the Europe 2020 strategy whose major objectives aimed at education, innovation, social inclusion, employment and the environment / energy. Regarding employment target in 2020 is to achieve an employment rate of 70%. Through it would reduce the current gap in employment rates, which in some cases exceed 50 or even 60 points. The paper analyzes the developments in employment rates values of developed countries and those in developing, members of the EU. The analysis is performed both on the employment rates of people between 15 and 64 years in total and by sex and age groups. The findings highlight the existence of convergent processes, especially by groups of countries and some divergences that occurred during 2000 - 2012.

This paper examines the link between health indicators, environmental variables and economic development, and th e consequences of this relationship on economic convergence for a large sample of rich and poor countries. While in economic literature income and environment are seen to have an inverted-U shaped relationship (Environment Kuznets Curve hypothesis), it is also well established that an improvement in environmental quality is positively related to health. Our study focuses on the implications of this relationship for economic convergence. In the early stage of economic development, the gain from income growth could be cancelled or mitigated by environmental degradation through populations' health (and other channels) and create a vicious circle in economic activity unlike in developed countries. This in turn could slow down economic convergence. To empirically assess these issues, we proceeded to an econometric analysis through three equations: a growth equation, a health equation and an environment equation. We found that health is a channel through which environment impacts economic growth. When we take into account the effect of environment quality on economic growth, the speed of convergence tends to increase slightly. This shows that environmental quality could be considered as a constraint for economic convergence.