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In order to assess the effectiveness of individual management systems in the analysed EU countries (Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary), an econometric analysis of the interdependence between the quality of the institutional and regulatory framework and the absorption of EU funds and economic growth was conducted. Conceptually, the econometric analysis aims to identify two levels of interdependence between institutional and regulatory variables on the one hand and dependent variables on the other: (1) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on the absorption of EU funds; (2) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on economic growth. The results of the analysis confirm that EU funds have led to increased economic growth in EU countries which provides basis for economic convergence. However, the allocation of funds alone did not necessarily increase the quality of the institutional framework and competitiveness of the analysed countries. Thus, the paper confirms the importance of improvement of the institutional and regulatory framework of particular grant recipient country, as this not only increases the absorption of EU funds, but also improves the economic growth prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though trade tariffs have generally fallen since the GATT agreement, non-tariff trade barriers still exist and show an upward trend. An important type of non-tariff trade barrier is logistics service related to the transport of goods to foreign markets. Efficient logistics is of great importance for small and open economies such as the Central and Eastern European EU member countries that became EU members in 2004 or later and are in the process of economic convergence with the old EU member countries, mostly through trade. On the other hand, logistics is important for old EU member countries because it influences competitiveness in global supply chains. The aim of this paper is to examine the homogeneity of the two blocks of EU countries in terms of logistics performance, i.e. to examine the impact of logistics performance on the international bilateral trade of the EU15 and CEMS with the rest of the world in the period 2010–2018. We develop and estimate a structural gravity model with Poisson pseudo-maximum probability estimator, using the LPI and its sub-indices as the main independent variables of interest. Our results show that differences in LPI values have heterogenous impact on bilateral trade, especially when considering trade in different classes of goods and different groups of country pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism significantly increased in the EU-28 in recent years. In the present study, the 28 member states were analysed for the period between 2012 and 2018, depending on data availability. The authors tested empirically whether economic convergence took place from the perspective of three types of revenue from the tourism sector. The contribution of tourism revenue to economic growth varied across different countries. The analysis of β and σ-convergence showed a low-intensity and slow process based on the revenues generated by accommodation, transport, and restaurant and coffee shop services. Contrary to expectations, the factors analysed did not strongly support the EU-28 tourism sector convergence. We argue the existence of a positive and direct relationship between tourism and economic growth. The convergence did exist but its pace was sometimes slow and of low intensity, preceded by periods of divergence. The three types of services generated tourism revenue but not decisively. The paper complements the literature using indicators that strictly describe the tourism sector and brings into focus findings that contradict those from other studies. Our conclusion is that convergence was not accelerated, but slow and it was not determined by tourism factors but by related ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments across the EU countries had to introduce measures to close the borders, restrict the movement of people, and suspend business activities in nonessential sectors. These restrictions threatened to result in the worst economic shock since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This situation forced the EU leaders to quickly implement urgent measures in the form of stimulating packages in order to avoid a catastrophic economic collapse. The measures, however, have been implemented without coordination and insufficiently considering the solidarity principle among the Member States, which is one of the EU basic principles. In that way, the already existing gap in development among the EU economies has become even more pronounced, which will certainly have an impact on the convergence process in the EU. In that sense, this paper is aimed at analyzing the convergence process among the EU economies during the period from 2004 to 2020 and comparing differences among the EU member states during the pandemic crisis (in 2020) and the global economic crisis (in 2008). To define the policy recommendations for overcoming the crisis and for obtaining a satisfactory level of real convergence and nominal convergence, Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC) was performed on the data for 2020 and five clusters were derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrowing the gap in regional innovation efficiency is conducive to the coordinated development of regional economies. Fiscal science and technology (S&T) expenditure is the government's primary means of supporting regional innovation. It also plays an essential role in improving the efficiency of regional innovation. This study constructs a spatial convergence economic model based on a dynamic perspective. It also examines the relationship between fiscal S&T expenditure and spatial convergence of regional innovation efficiency. China's regional innovation efficiency shows a trend of conditional β-convergence. Fiscal S&T expenditure positively affects the spatial convergence of regional innovation efficiency and has an inverted U-shaped, nonlinear relationship as a whole. The transmission mechanism test revealed that the cross-regional flow of research and development (R&D) personnel can enhance this positive effect, and the role of R&D capital is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the convergence of digitalisation in the European Union (EU) in terms of DESI per capita in all EU countries during 2015–2020. The empirical results sustain the hypothesis of convergence of the degree of digital level in the European Union member countries. In evaluating the convergence process, we also aimed to investigate the role of economic development and education, measured by gross value added and education index. The analysis results, the use of sigma and beta convergence methods, showed that the role of economic development is likely to be decisive in resolving disparities, as opposed to that of educational development. The sigma convergence analysis showed that the gap between the EU-28 countries regarding digitalisation tends to decrease in the analysed period. Spatial data analysis, in turn, provides strong evidence for the presence of spatial autocorrelation in the DESI distribution. This result is based on a spatial lagged model that considers that DESI growth rates are related both to their initial levels of digitalisation and the growth rates of neighbouring regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

>The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented global public health crisis, which led to a drastic decline in economic activity and sharp rises in government deficits and public debts. Our research aims to analyse the aggregated impact of COVID-19 pandemic on each EU country and their health systems and correlate it with the main economic convergence indicators for 2020. To this purpose, we built a composite COVID index using Principal Component Analysis, employed TOPSIS to rank the EU countries according to nominal and real convergence indicators, and correlate the index with each ranking. Our findings suggest that in the first year of the pandemic, nominal convergence indicators were more affected than real convergence indicators. Non-euro CEE countries managed to keep some of their convergence indicators at relatively sustainable levels despite having high COVID index values. Baltic and Scandinavian countries seem to have outperformed the others, the latter having an initially more relaxed approach to the restrictions imposed on the population. The risk of diverging during the pandemic crisis appears to be increasing in countries where there were imbalances prior to 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrowing the gap in regional innovation efficiency is conducive to the coordinated development of regional economies. Fiscal science and technology (S&T) expenditure is the government's primary means of supporting regional innovation. It also plays an essential role in improving the efficiency of regional innovation. This study constructs a spatial convergence economic model based on a dynamic perspective. It also examines the relationship between fiscal S&T expenditure and spatial convergence of regional innovation efficiency. China's regional innovation efficiency shows a trend of conditional β-convergence. Fiscal S&T expenditure positively affects the spatial convergence of regional innovation efficiency and has an inverted U-shaped, nonlinear relationship as a whole. The transmission mechanism test revealed that the cross-regional flow of research and development (R&D) personnel can enhance this positive effect, and the role of R&D capital is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the convergence of the R&D expenditure in the EU28 for 2004–2015. We initially run a sigma convergence analysis and the results show convergence in the total expenditure, due to the behaviour of the business and higher education sectors, despite government sector divergence. However, noticeable differences between the EU15 and 13 EU countries are apparent. The business enterprise sector is the main driver of EU15 R&D convergence, whereas for the EU13 this role is played by the government expenditure. In addition, the economic crisis has impacted differently on both groups. The club convergence approach allows us to explore these insights through individualized analysis and clusterization. Results for the EU28 show two clubs for the total expenditure, but the analysis of its components reveals a larger grouping. Our results evidence the necessity of revising the EU R&D policies towards greater coordination and resources, and the implementation of new instruments, due to the impact of this expenditure on growth, development and integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human development is increasingly on global policy agendas, in particular related to the Sustainable Development Goals. Here, the UN Human Development Index is analysed for correlation and causation with economic and resource parameters using novel quantitative techniques. Global datasets at national resolution are used to explore correlation and causation with the HDI. The whole HDI is not correlated to national totals of wealth or resource use, but is strongly correlated to personal wealth and resource use. The multi-spatial convergence cross mapping method is adapted to shed light on causation in this system. It is shown that the HDI is tightly linked to the economy and to personal resource use. Analysis of the HDI sub-indices reveals subtleties easily overlooked. For example, it is shown that access to water and electricity strongly influence GNI. It is shown that simple resource accumulation/exploitation is less important in determining HDI growth than personal wealth and access to resources. That is, equitable distribution is more effective than gross accumulation in influencing the HDI. Strong feedback means that investments in water treatment and distribution networks, for example, will have strong effects on HDI change, a conclusion that may play an important role in national developmental policy debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with analysis of economic, social and ecological disparities of Ukrainian regions. Regional economic disparities are measured through the convergence concept and the article employs panel data analysis with fixed and random effects estimations. Our empirical results show the presence of economic convergence in Ukrainian regions. Initially it was found that poor regions do grow relatively faster than the rich. Moreover, the difference between poor and rich regions has been decreased 1.8 times during 1999 and 2010. In addition, it was found that the presence of ecological convergence in the Ukraine and initially ‘clean’ regions do increase pollution faster than initially ‘dirty’ regions. That is, Ukrainian regions were converging to some environmental steady state through the process of increasing pollution. Ukrainian regions were also experiencing health convergence with negative policy implications, since all regions do converge to some health levels through an increase in morbidity. The economic growth of Ukrainian regions was achieved through sacrificing environmental situations and increased morbidity. Therefore, there were no clear economic reasons to start interregional confrontation that has taken place in the Ukraine, since all regions were on the same track of development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]