Multi-speed Europe? An Analysis of the Real Convergence within the European Union

Reaching an appropriate level of economic, social and territorial convergence has been a strategic goal for European policy and decision-makers. The author’s first assumption is that although in the early stages of the regional project, the Member States had similar growth and development levels, with the advancement of the integration process, the development asymmetries increased. In this paper, the authors stress the fact that the European decision-makers and researchers have become more and more interested to study if the Member States of the European Union meet the criteria for certain types of convergence: nominal, real, legal, structural and institutional. This paper brings to the fore-front the process of real convergence, trying to respond to the question if the Member States are catching-up, or are diverging. Moreover, taking into consideration the enlargement of the European Union with the countries from Central and Eastern Europe, we have studied the main trends within this group of countries. In this respect, we have calculated the σ and β convergence for three geographical clusters of countries: Central Eastern, North Western and Southern Europe. The results obtained show that the economies of the New Member States increased faster than those of the North-Western countries, experiencing a significant speed of convergence. In contrast, the North-Western countries recorded a negative pace in terms of convergence and significant discrepancies between them. In conclusion, the paper shows that the desiderate of real convergence becomes more and more difficult to achieve as while the Central and Eastern Europe states make important steps in reducing the disparities between them and also catching up with the European Union’s average, the Southern Europe countries are diverging.   Keywords: European Union, real convergence, σ-convergence, β-convergenc

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND COHESION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Since the first initiatives of regional integration in the 20th century, the European group has gone through important stages, evolving from customs union to economic and monetary union. During this time, the challenges for the European group have not diminished. By contrary, the internal vulnerabilities were enhanced by the aggressive crises that affected in the last decades the entire World. Despite the transformations of the European Union, cohesion has always remained a main objective of the group, with the purpose to promote the unity between Members. Considering this fundamental principle of the European Union, the aim of this paper was to determine the convergence patterns, together with the main determinants of prosperity in the interval 2000 and 2022. Focusing on absolute βconvergence, we have initially determined the relationship between the initial level of GDP per capita and the average growth rates based on cross-sectional data. We have concluded that the initially less developed countries tend to experience higher growth rates compared to the developed Members. Moreover, the study suggests that the average convergence speed in the European Union was around 2% per year. Complementarily, using panel regressions to estimate conditional β-convergence, we have illustrated that factors such as investment, exports of goods and services and inflation had a positive impact on the dynamics of GDP per capita. Consequently, strengthening the macroeconomic policy framework has generated prosperity gains for the European Union

Was Euro the magic wand for economic growth? An analysis of the real benefits of Euro adoption for the New Member States

At the beginning of the 21st century, the European single currency has been considered a guarantor of prosperity and welfare for the countries that were able to meet the nominal convergence criteria. Starting with Slovenia, a number of five Center and Eastern European Countries joined the Economic and Monetary Union, aiming to achieve the economic prosperity of the Western countries. The concept of economic convergence has been popularized through the economic growth literature during the last century and has become more and more debated with the deepening and expansion of the European Union. The main purpose of this paper has been to evaluate whether there is any hard evidence attesting that Euro adoption accelerated the economic development and created a significant advantage for the New Member States that opted for the single currency, as compared with their peer countries. In this respect, we have studied a panel of New Member States that joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007, comprising both Euro and Non-Euro countries, and we concluded that the single currency do not necessarily guarantee higher growth rates. Moreover, we revealed that the Euro New Member States were more affected by the economic and financial crisis than their Non-Euro peers. We have also shown that there are significant discrepancies between the early adopters of the Euro and the countries that joined the Eurozone after 2004 in terms of convergence and that the differences between the two groups have expanded in the last years. Last and not the least, in order to test our hypotheses, we have compared two sister-countries: Slovakia that joined the Eurozone in 2009 and Czech Republic that has not taken until now the decision to adopt the Euro. In this respect, our results suggest that both countries had good economic performances, and for some periods Czech Republic outperformed Slovakia, mainly in terms of GDP per capita and Foreign Direct Investment. Therefore, we concluded that the single currency has not significantly enhanced the economic performances in the case of the New Member States

Multi-speed Europe? an Analysis of the Real Convergence Within the European Union

Reaching an appropriate level of economic, social and territorial convergence has been a strategic goal for European policy and decision-makers. The author's first assumption is that although in the early stages of the regional project, the Member States had similar growth and development levels, with the advancement of the integration process, the development asymmetries increased. In this paper, the authors stress the fact that the European decision-makers and researchers have become more and more interested to study if the Member States of the European Union meet the criteria for certain types of convergence: nominal, real, legal, structural and institutional. This paper brings to the fore-front the process of real convergence, trying to respond to the question if the Member States are catching-up, or are diverging. Moreover, taking into consideration the enlargement of the European Union with the countries from Central and Eastern Europe, we have studied the main trends within this group of countries. In this respect, we have calculated the σ and β convergence for three geographical clusters of countries: Central Eastern, North Western and Southern Europe. The results obtained show that the economies of the New Member States increased Faster than those of the North-Western countries, experiencing a significant speed of convergence. In contrast, the North-Western countries recorded a negative pace in terms of convergence and significant discrepancies between them. In conclusion, the paper shows that the desiderate of real convergence becomes more and more difficult to achieve as while the Central and Eastern Europe states make important steps in reducing the disparities between them and also catching up with the European Union's average, the Southern Europe countries are diverging.   Keywords: European Union, real convergence, σ-convergence, β-convergenc

Regional Patterns of Pesticide Consumption Determinants in the European Union

This article contributes to the discussion about the socioeconomic factors that reinforce pesticide dependence in the European Union and hinder the transition to more sustainable agricultural practices in light of the European Union’s Green Deal objective of reducing the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030. The analysis has a two-pronged purpose: (1) to identify the determinants of pesticide consumption in the European Union by conducting a set of four seemingly unrelated regressions and (2) to emphasize the existence of regional patterns across EU countries formed by the factors that significantly impact pesticide consumption based on a cluster analysis. Per capita GDP, selling prices, population, and real income positively influence pesticide use, whereas subsidies and organic agricultural area negatively influence them. Pesticide use is most affected by GDP per capita and least affected by subsidies. Cluster analysis highlights regional differences reflected in three clusters: (1) the most recent EU member states, (2) the European countries with large population levels, and (3) the countries with the highest GDP per capita. Our findings may contribute to the EU’s capacity to generate policy changes at the member state level and can be built into recommendations to address the persistent overuse of pesticides

Regional Patterns of Pesticide Consumption Determinants in the European Union

This article contributes to the discussion about the socioeconomic factors that reinforce pesticide dependence in the European Union and hinder the transition to more sustainable agricultural practices in light of the European Union’s Green Deal objective of reducing the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030. The analysis has a two-pronged purpose: (1) to identify the determinants of pesticide consumption in the European Union by conducting a set of four seemingly unrelated regressions and (2) to emphasize the existence of regional patterns across EU countries formed by the factors that significantly impact pesticide consumption based on a cluster analysis. Per capita GDP, selling prices, population, and real income positively influence pesticide use, whereas subsidies and organic agricultural area negatively influence them. Pesticide use is most affected by GDP per capita and least affected by subsidies. Cluster analysis highlights regional differences reflected in three clusters: (1) the most recent EU member states, (2) the European countries with large population levels, and (3) the countries with the highest GDP per capita. Our findings may contribute to the EU’s capacity to generate policy changes at the member state level and can be built into recommendations to address the persistent overuse of pesticides