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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]

During the Golden Age (1950–1973), Portugal stood out in the international scene, converging economically with the group of more industrialised economies. In this paper, we start by analysing the main factors that explain the extraordinary economic performance of Portugal during that crucial period of its history. Next, we construct and estimate a dynamic model to quantify the relationship between those factors and the Portuguese economic growth in the time horizon that stretches from the Golden Age to present days. The results obtained show that investment and international trade have been contributing positively to economic growth of Portugal in the last decades, 1950–2018. The conclusions of this paper, which are in line with the international literature, reinforce the importance for Portuguese decision-makers to adopt political measures to open the economy and to create favourable conditions for investment in order to obtain a faster economic growth that allows a robust convergence with the most industrialized nations. [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]

The aim of this paper is to discover how regions can change innovation process models and whether less developed regions can, in this sense, break out of the negative path dependency. This paper is one of the few to investigate path dependency from a regional rather than from an industry or product perspective. The application of Ward metrics revealed seven innovation process models that can be combined into three groups according to different regional circumstances, in which: (1) knowledgeintensive services are the main carriers of the innovation processes, (2) innovation processes are mostly expressed through manufacturing, and (3) transitions from one type of innovation process into another are the dominant characteristics. Results indicate that there are indeed many examples of path dependency breakthroughs. They occur mostly in the transition group, and could evolve into either one of the other two groups. The research revealed two types of manufacturing regions, namely low-tech and high-tech. It also confirmed that less developed regions fall within the low-tech model called 'primary-sector-based manufacturing regions' and face difficulties when phasing into higher-tech models, e.g. only 4% of all transitions are from this model. It is therefore challenging to break out of a negative path dependency. Moreover, the research signified that the reasons for growth are model specific. Therefore, when aiming to achieve an innovation process model transition, regional policies should be tailored accordingly; thus, an evolutionary, staged process of regional policy would be worth researching further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the unevenness of the 2007–08 crisis by examining the literature of England's North–South divide. From the 1980s this longstanding divide was exacerbated as a result of promoting London as a global financial hub, so when the crisis hit many expected some regional economic convergence as redundancies spread throughout the financial sector. This has, however, not taken place and previous patterns of uneven development have rather been reinforced. Attempts have been made to explain this deepening of established geographical patterns as the result of different regions’ degrees of economic resilience, but this approach is, however, problematic because it naturalizes crises, downscales responsibility and neglects politics. Inspired by Martin Jones’s concept of the ‘spatial selectivity of the state’, the paper will rather argue that to understand the uneven geography of the economic crisis, one has to look beyond localized resilience to how the state’s austerity policies have displaced the crisis’s impacts away from its origins in a London-centred financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Our main contribution in this paper consists of analyzing long-run interactions between structural policies and economic growth accounting for possible convergence. For this purpose, we are based on a sample of eight countries bordering the Mediterranean during the period 1975–2012. In fact, we used a technique based on panel ARDL methods which deals with the stationary series problem of different orders to monitor possible convergence in the long-run horizon. This method allows us to study potential long-term effects of structural economic policies on growth as well as capture the possible links between candidate variables and the trend of convergence in terms of per capita GDP. Our empirical results support convergence processes of GDP per capita in all the bordering Mediterranean countries. Moreover, we find that the increased number of secondary schools enrollment through public expenditure on education, greater economic openness, and fluid foreign direct investments stimulates economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of EU enlargement on price convergence. The internal market is expected to boost integration and increase efficiency and welfare through a convergence of prices in product markets. Two principal drivers are crucial to explain price developments. On one hand, higher competition exerts downward pressure on prices because of lower markups. On the other hand, the catching-up process of low-income countries leads to a rise in price levels and higher inflation over a transition period. Using comparative price levels for forty-one product categories, price convergence can be established. However, the speed of convergence is rather slow, with half-lives of approximately ten years. The enlargement has stimulated convergence slightly toward the mean price; this effect is robust across different groups of countries. Moreover, the driving forces of convergence are explored. In line with theoretical predictions, the rise in competition exerts downward pressure on prices, whereas catching-up of low-income countries leads to a rise in price levels and higher inflation. The findings have important implications, as price convergence facilitates the working of common economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish that contributions to regional theory advanced by Gunnar Myrdal exhibit high levels of explanatory power when clarifying challenges facing Germany's eastern region since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Myrdal's evolutionary institutionalist contribution is contrasted with the "convergence hypothesis" advanced by R. Barro and X. Sala.i-Martin. Challenged is their prediction that Germany's eastern region would experience relatively higher annual rates of per capita output growth, and that levels of per capita output would converge between the eastern and western regions over time. Myrdal's approach is argued superior as it allows for considering backwash and spread effects within a framework of circular and cumulative causation, emerging between Germany's western and eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic integration in Europe has been accompanied by concerns about the effect of integration on regional disparities in the European Union. This paper investigates the effects of the most recent EU enlargement on convergence among countries and regions in the EU-27. Departing from a new economic geography framework, we focus on integration effects caused by changes in market access, released by a reduction of trade impediments. Special attention is paid to the catching-up process of the new member states (NMSs) and the development of regional disparities within the East European countries. From 1995 to 2004, the EU integration process was marked by an economic catching-up of the NMSs. At the same time, regional within-country disparities in the NMSs have been increasing. Our simulation analysis shows that trade integration has a strong effect on market potentials in East European regions. Comparatively strong changes in market access are supposed to foster the East European catching-up at the national and regional levels. However, accounting for these integration effects does not significantly alter the findings of our convergence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging European economies have been converging rapidly toward the more advanced European economies in recent years. However, large external imbalances in parts of the region have raised questions about sustainability and concerns about vulnerabilities. Empirical evidence in this paper up to the end of 2007 and based on a number of methodologies suggests that the convergence trend of emerging Europe is based on strong fundamentals and is expected to continue, but at a slower pace. Moreover, the convergence path may be volatile, as countries with large external imbalances adjust, with risks of a hard landing in some cases. The results also suggest that policy could do more to address the region's imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to two issues raised in this special issue on the American school of international political economy (IPE). I react first to the assumed convergence towards an open economy politics (OEP) framework. While OEP clearly has merits, I find that its narrow conception of actors and interests neglects other approaches' insights into preference formation and institutions that would enable it to offer better explanations of political economy. Second, I respond to the perceived monoculture in American IPE, which many (wrongly) attribute to professional power over journals and (rightly) tie to graduate training in the United States. More to the point of deconstructing the perceived intellectual hegemony driving IPE's monoculture, I challenge Randall Germain's indictment of the Harvard school of IPE. I show that the early Harvard Mafia indeed played a critical role in shaping the field, but it did not determine the myopic paradigmatic and methodological trends we currently see in the discipline. Finally, I reflect on why we have, and indeed need, this transatlantic debate and make a plea for more pragmatism, pluralism and problem-driven research in IPE today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is widely held to circumscribe the parameters of political and economic choice in contemporary Europe, just as it has come to circumscribe the parameters of debate on the future of European models of capitalism. Yet opinions on the question of convergence nonetheless vary markedly, with proponents of the hyperglobalization thesis pointing to a simple and inexorable process of neoliberal convergence while an increasingly influential school of neo-institutionalists point to a rather more complex process of 'dual' or 'co-convergence', reinforcing the distinctiveness of liberal and coordinated market economies. In both accounts, the exhibited pattern of convergence (dual or otherwise) is seen to be driven by globalization. In this paper I provide a theoretical and empirical critique of this important literature, challenging the contextualization of the question of convergence with respect to globalization which both perspectives share. I advance a distinctive variant of the new institutionalism which emphasizes: (i) the contingency of any process of convergence observed; (ii) the frequently political as opposed to economic nature of convergent tendencies; (iii) the counter-tendencies which might be mobilized to such tendencies; and (iv) the invariably far greater significance, in the establishment of common trajectories, of regional rather than genuinely global processes of integration. Though common trajectories are discernible within contemporary Europe, associated in particular with the institutional architecture of EMU and an accelerating process of European economic integration, they have been embraced more or less enthusiastically and at variable paces, leading not to convergent but to divergent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the European Union (EU) policy of technological 'convergence', concentrating on the convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting. The underlying theme is that regulatory agencies are political actors and their actions need to be analysed in the context of who benefits from the policy outcome. In addition, regulatory regimes are themselves variables in bureaucratic/institutional turf wars and in the political process. The specific case discussed here of DG XIII of the European Commission responsible for telecommunications provides an example of attempts by a regulatory agency to broaden the scope of its regulatory reach. It shows how it utilized a theoretical reconstruction of markets to justify alterations both at EU and at national level in regulatory regimes that would have had direct consequences in benefiting its allied telecommunications and Internet operators and in disadvantaging public service broadcasters. The article discusses the ensuing reactions to this intervention. It concludes that DG XIII's attempts to redefine markets and regulatory regimes in its own interests and in the interests of its traditional industrial allies have not only been thwarted, but have strengthened the sectoral-based regulatory regime it wished to displace, and have also undermined its own credibility as a regulator. [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 paper analyzes the real economic convergence between the new EU entrants in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE-8) and the EU core (EU-12 or EU-15). It includes new estimates on the speed of income-level convergence and new findings about the conformity of cyclical changes. The results offer further evidence of continuous progress in real economic convergence between Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A world macroeconomic model E3MG is being developed to investigate policies for climate change and sustainable development, as a module of a new 1AM structure. As climate change is a long term phenomenon, a model of long term economic changes is required. There is no suitable and generally accepted theory of long term technical change, but Freeman and Louçã [1] have developed a good descriptive theory. This paper interprets this theory in quantitative terms, in the context of the macroeconomic analysis. It will outline a model of the changes in economic structure via Input-Output coefficients and the growth of new technology industries, incorporating endogenous technical change from R&D and investment, with learning-by-doing. [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]

This paper examines “fat tails puzzle” in the financial markets. Ignoring the rate of convergence in Central Limit Theorem (CLT) provides the “fat tail” uncertainty. In this paper, we provide a review of the empirical results obtained “fat tails puzzle” using innovative method of Yuri Gabovich based on the rate of convergence in CLT to the normal distribution, which is called G-bounds. Constructed G-bounds evaluate risk in the financial markets more carefully than models based on Gaussian distributions. This statement was tested on the 24 financial markets exploring their stock indexes. Besides, this has tested Weak-Form Market Efficiency for investigated markets. As a result, we found out the negative correlation between the weak effectiveness of the stock market and the thickness of the left tail of the profitability density function. Therefore, the closer the risk of losses on the stock market to the corresponding risk of loss for a normal distribution, the higher the probability that the market is weak effective. For non-effective markets, the probability of large losses is much higher than for a weak effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show that convergence or divergence in the European Union (EU) will be influenced by developments in the periphery of Europe to a considerable extent, although the core situation cannot be ignored. In essence, therefore, it is the relationship between core and periphery that will determine the future of the EU. The main thesis of this study is that the EU economic position is such that divergence is more likely to occur than convergence. The focus of the analysis is what has come to be known as ‘Peripheral Fordism’, which enables us lo suggest that periphery prospects for economic development are predicated upon substantial expansion of their industrial sectors based on indigenous forces. It is therefore the existing institutional structure within the EU that poses obstacles to convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on articles related to comparative education published in the November 2003 issue of the journal "Comparative Education." Contribution of Edmund King to the field of comparative education; Significance of the new policy convergence to the phenomenon of globalization; Impact of global pressures towards the post-hoc accountability and evaluation as a means of system control.

Since globalisation accelerated in the early 1990s, income inequality has increased in most developed countries and in some middle-income countries, including China and India. Also, inequality has declined in most countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and in many Sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries. This observation corroborates the neoclassical models of convergence that predict that, in the long-run, income distribution will tend to converge across countries. In this study, I examined whether there has been convergence in inequality between 2000 and 2015. To this end, I constructed a large panel of Gini indices of 142 countries and tested for the existence of convergence clubs using the econometric methodology proposed by Phillips and Sul. The results indicate that there is no uniform convergence to one club. Instead, I found that countries' income inequalities are converging into five different clubs. This finding is different from those reported by the few existing c ross-country studies on convergence in inequality. Furthermore, the analysis reveals strong evidence that between-club inequality increases, while within-club inequality decreases over the years. Between-club inequality is found to be determined by population growth, population density and the ratio of physical to human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional convergence depends on the ability to adopt advanced technology. This ability can be reflected on the resources devoted to science and technology. An empirical examination of this proposition suggests that technology adoption has a significant effect in regional convergence in Europe. The empirical analysis is also shown to have important implications for the direction of regional policy in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States decided to implement IFRS for its publicly traded companies. The road map calls for the SEC to decide how to proceed to the mandatory use of IFRS in 2011. Developing a plan around IFRS implementation is becoming increasingly important for hospitality companies. The research institute of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has published a white paper discussing the impact of the convergence of the IFRS on the hospitality industry. The transition from U.S. GAAP to IFRS will certainly cause some challenges for publicly traded lodging companies. The question is whether individual lodging properties, which mainly use USALI as a guide for financial transactions, will be affected by this transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One long-standing problem with currency and trading unions is the varying timing of their business cycles. These variations make adopting uniform fiscal and monetary policies difficult, with some nations bearing more of the pain than others. But over time, these business cycles should converge. Do they? This economist, a member of our board, finds that in the European Union, they have indeed converged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI), with its growth-enhancing capacity, has played a significant role in setting the transition economies onto the path of convergence with their more affluent neighbors, which is enhanced by their recent membership in one of the richest clubs in the world, the European Union. The differential impact of FDI in terms of its sectoral composition on productivity and efficiency of the host country, as well as its propensity to stimulate institution building, are changing both the economic and political landscapes in the Central and Eastern European and Baltic region. The implicit requirements that FDI poses for the receiving country together with the EU accession-driven reforms fit together in a mutually reinforcing system that is helping the goals of transition and the convergence process. The achievement of both goals is seen as the best guarantor of peace and security in the Central and Eastern European and Baltic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Indonesia has been experiencing relatively considerable and stable economic growth in the last decades, the country is prone to income disparity across regions due to uneven distribution of population, natural resources and the persistent impacts of centralized development imposed by the New Order regime. This study examines the economic growth convergence in East Java, Indonesia, from 2010 to 2019 and explores the influence of government expenditure on education, health, and capital sector on the economic growth convergence. By considering spatial dependence across regions, the result shows no strong evidence of regional income convergence in East Java. Also, this research claims the presence of spillover effect of government expenditure on education and capital sector on regional income growth. Notably, higher government expenditure of the education sector in one region could stimulate higher economic growth of its neighboring regions. Conversely, higher government expenditure on the capital sector in one region may lower the economic growth of its surrounding regions. [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]

One of the most important economic debates surrounding the feasibility of government efforts to redistribute income is the extent to which economic integration leads to policy convergence. The convergence hypothesis argues that when trade and finance flow freely between political jurisdictions, economic policies will tend to converge. This article uses two Canadian provinces, Manitoba and British Columbia, to conduct a comparative analysis of redistributive policy convergence. We do find observable differences in the redistributive policies of the two provinces. The extent to which this translated into measurable improvements in economic and social outcomes is less pronounced, but will be of interest to scholars of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of the article is to explore trends in economics and sociology, as well as other science disciplines, like history, psychology and anthropology, and investigate the interdisciplinary exchanges that have taken place, leading to convergences and divergences between academic subjects. The "imperialism of economics" is increasingly approaching traditional academic fields of history, psychology, and sociology. However, the article concludes that sociology's public reputation may have declined, while simultaneously economics is shifting its attention to the social dimension of economic behavior and moving toward the other social sciences; a process which has been coined "social-scienciation." The argument is that those developments can also be seen as chances to upgrade the social sciences "around" economics. The described process also aligns with recent talk about a need for interdisciplinary studies when this article adopts a different take on the issues of interdisciplinarity and embeddedness. [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]

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Italian government carried out a massive regional policy in southern Italy, through the State-owned agency ‘Cassa per il Mezzogiorno’ (1950–1986). The article reconstructs the activities of this agency, making use of its yearly reports and of national and local archives. The Cassa was effective in the first two decades, thanks to substantial technical autonomy and, in the 1960s, to a strong focus on industrial development; however, from the 1970s it progressively became an instrument of waste and misallocation. At the local level, we find significant differences between the southern regions, and correspondence between the quality of state intervention and the regional patterns of GDP and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The convergence of the ongoing innovations to make vehicles driverless, carbon free and accessible on ‘as needed’ basis, is evolving fast. A review of available information suggests that these technologies have substantial potential to generate positive externalities by improving road safety, lowering of fuel consumption and emissions in vehicles, and providing mobility options for vulnerable population including young, old and persons with disability. However, given the limited commercialization it is difficult to discern the nature of impact these technologies will have in reducing the two negative travel externalities, road congestion and low density expansion of cities. Gradual mainstreaming of these technologies will offer opportunities for further research in understanding the behavioral responses of their end users, and the risks that these technologies may pose to manufacturers, consumers, and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

This article uses a non-linear time-varying model to test productivity convergence in 10 emerging countries within Central and Eastern Europe. The results show that the convergence algorithm has rejected the null hypothesis of convergence for all countries in most of the sectors. Also, we found evidence that the productivity clusters for total economy and other sectors are very different in terms of number and countries. Additionally, even if the productivity gaps in the region have been reduced, we still notice significant disparities between countries. The clustering algorithm shows countries which have a high productivity growth in some sectors and a low productivity growth in others. This reveals the prevalence of idiosyncratic factors in productivity determinants. Baltic countries are catching up, while other countries such as Bulgaria are underperformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OVERVIEW: In an increasingly global, networked market for R&D it is more important than ever to collaborate. In the past, intellectual property, negotiations have been formidable barriers to forming effective collaborative university--industry arrangements. Experience has shown that it is possible to reduce negotiation from 20-26 to 1-2 months by using a model to build a team, agreeing on a pre-determined process, and being committed to finding creative ways to reach agreement. Hewlett-Packard's experience in using such a model with the University of California at Berkeley and the (California) Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium has shown how creativity, and insight are essential to achieving convergence and also helps explain why standard agreements cannot effectively address the situational challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-communist Europe's increasing convergence with the European Union has generated contentious debate over the underlying impetus for this change. Did the material incentives and implicit coercion inherent in the EU accession process prod East Central European leaders onwards in their reform efforts, or did they adopt new institutions because of the deeper effects of persuasion and socialization? This article uses central banking to make two arguments in relation to this debate. First, differently situated domestic actors may support EU-style institutional convergence in the same issue-area for different reasons; while external incentives may primarily motivate one group, another may fully accept and internalize the underlying EU norms. Such two-track diffusion is more likely to occur when an epistemic community drives the domestic socialization process, because under these conditions socialization can advance within a small group or single institution without requiring active encouragement from other domestic actors. Second, problematic consequences of two-track diffusion appear only after EU accession becomes assured, relaxing or removing external incentives for compliance. At that point, socialized actors may find that they no longer enjoy wider domestic support. I demonstrate this through an examination of Czech and Hungarian central bankers' efforts to adopt the Euro quickly despite the potential risks involved. The socialized central bankers took this position out of weakness, not strength, viewing the external constraint of Euro adoption as the only way to ensure conservative fiscal and monetary policies after EU accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reexamines the hypotheses of absolute and conditional convergence for a sample of twenty-five transition countries over the period from 1990 to 2002. After splitting the sample into three four-year periods, the hypotheses are confirmed only for the latest period of transition. For the early transition stage, we find a negative relation between productivity growth, on one hand, and the pace of price liberalization and initial conditions, measured by initial market distortions, on the other hand. In addition, past/lagged institutional reforms are found to enhance productivity growth in the intermediate and advanced stages of transition. The confirmation of convergence for the latest stage of transition, however should not yet be considered as a sign of a permanent return to convergence in these countries as it could be the result of differences in the transition cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to compete in a global market, some nation-states are reforming their education systems according to the principles of the 'new public management'. This is especially the case in nation-states which have a so-called liberal welfare regime: for example, the United States, England and New Zealand. The empirical basis of this convergence remains weak at the global level, but, as a set of ideas, 'governance' has some currency. The new 'governance' is not the government of old: there are calls for structural looseness: that is, ephemeral networks, partnerships, devolution. A brief consideration of this new mode of management comprises the first part of the analysis. Thereafter, an exploration is undertaken of some of the theories which may explain what is a putative structural convergence in the governance of education across some nation-states. The argument will refer particularly to critical theory and to institutionalist theory. It is argued that neither theory is a sufficient explanation of isomorphic convergence in the pattern of educational governance. Nor are the two theoretical positions easily reconciled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the impact of the economic status of Slovenia on monetary convergence. Possibility of transition from a flexible to fixed exchange rate regime; Need for efficient money system to mobilize and allocate savings and investment; Exchange rate developments in the various transition economies and appropriateness of exchange rate system.

In three different ways of lead–lag causal relationship, covariance/correlation and coherence, we apply the wavelets analysis via the Continuous Morlet Wavelet Transform to delineate the significant frequency–time domain lead–lag relationships for the West African Monetary Zone member countries for real US dollar exchange rates and their absolute log returns from January 2001 to April 2015. The results indicate that lead–lag associations at different periodicities vary across the countries. No one country comes off as leading conveniently for both real and absolute returns of the exchange rates. Our results corroborate other evidences of non-convergence of exchange rates in the monetary zone, which hinders the eventual implementation of the single currency in the ECOWAS region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the notions of globalization using risk analysis. Approaches to globalization over competing conceptions of risk; Emergence of sets of non-state actors in the global economy; Emphasis of economists in the demise of nation states and economic convergence; Impact of globalization on risk-induced choices of individuals.

Presents an institutional analysis of modern capitalist economies. Absence of patterns toward economic convergence; Importance of institutions in economics; Proposal for a classification of developed economies.