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“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

This survey of the literature on the convergence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions informs researchers on areas for future research by summarizing the countries examined, the types of convergence tested and the methodological approaches undertaken.

This survey examines peer-reviewed empirical studies of CO₂ emissions convergence with respect to country coverage and alternative approaches to test for various types of convergence.

For large multicountry studies, the support for convergence is quite limited. However, studies focused exclusively on a subset of countries defined by income classification, geographic region or institutional structure reveal the finding of convergence is more prevalent. Studies at the subnational level have primarily been in the cases of the US and China with the exception of two studies across industry sectors in Portugal and Sweden.

This study focuses exclusively on peer-reviewed published studies.

This study is relevant to the design of mitigation strategies to reduce CO₂ emissions and the assumption of convergence underlying climate change models.

As a major component of greenhouse gas emissions, CO₂ emissions is of global importance in its impact on the environment and climate change.

This study provides the most recent and comprehensive survey of the empirical literature on the convergence of CO₂ emissions.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of the distribution of per capita income of Indian states in the post‐reform period, in order to identify trends towards convergence‐club formation, polarization or stratification during this period.

The authors adopt the “distribution dynamics” framework that involves estimating kernel density functions, stochastic kernels and ergodic distributions in order to identify these trends.

The results show that there is polarization in India in the post‐reform period and this is due to the contrary growth dynamics of the middle‐income states resulting in the “vanishing middle” of the distribution.

This is the first study that highlights the contrary growth dynamics among the middle‐income states as the driving force behind the polarization of Indian states in the post‐reform period.

This study aims to investigate the effects of IFRS convergence on market liquidity and to analyze the firm-level heterogeneity in liquidity effects based on reporting incentive, firm size, ownership structure and firm leverage.

The empirical analysis is based on firm-fixed effect regression using several proxies of market liquidity as dependent variables. The sample consists of 337 firms listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who shifted to IFRS from the financial year 2016–2017.

The empirical findings indicate that IFRS convergence has contributed to the significant increase in market liquidity in a weaker enforcement country, i.e. India. Additionally, when the study performs the heterogeneity test of IFRS impact, the results indicate the presence of significant cross-sectional differences in such liquidity effects across firms. Thus, altogether the findings suggest that both accounting convergence and firm-level factors are likely to be the mechanism underlying the observed improvement in market liquidity.

In the current literature, there is an ongoing debate about whether the observed post-IFRS effects are driven by the change in accounting standard per se or by other related factors. Therefore, by studying the liquidity effects of IFRS convergence in India, this study provides evidence regarding the sources of the documented IFRS effects. Moreover, the study indicates the significance of firm-level factors in determining the observed liquidity outcomes around IFRS adoption, which is unique to the literature.

Like the cross-country convergence or divergence analysis in incomes to address the global phenomenon, the same analysis is also required to be done in the case of a group of states within a national territory. Further, it is also required to see whether convergence or divergence in incomes of the states is attributable to the convergence or divergence in their allocations of bank credits. Thus, this chapter aims at examining whether the selected major states in India are converging or diverging in the allocations of bank credit, and if so, what will be the magnitudes of decreases or increases in the level of disparities and inequalities in credit allocations. This study concludes that there is a clear diverging tendency of credit allocations of the states of India during the post-reform period so far as the absolute convergence hypothesis of the neoclassical theory is concerned. Further, in terms of the framework of σ convergence, the study observes that all phases of the Indian economy have produced converging paths of the inter-state credit allocations, and the path becomes diverging during the post-reform phase. Based on the quantifications of the magnitudes of disparities and inequalities in terms of CV, C4 concentration, HHI and Gini values, this study thus reveals that there are significant increases in the levels of disparities and inequalities in the allocations of credit to the states from the pre-reform to the post-reform phases. Therefore, the persistence of divergence in income or rising income inequality during the phase of the major reform program in India may be due to the persistence of divergence and rising inequality in the allocation of bank credit.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a firm-level corporate governance (CG) convergence in two emerging economies, namely Malaysia and Thailand in post-Asian financial crisis periods, and how the level of convergence is moderated by different firm-specific factors.

Using data collected from annual reports of top Malaysian and Thai companies in two point of times 2005 and 2008, this research examines the attributes of board of directors to find the firm-level CG convergence. This study, based on prior literature, identified firm-specific factors to assess their moderating impact on the level of convergence. This paper exploits beta and sigma convergence technique to measure the CG convergence.

Results show that top Malaysian and Thai companies have developed internal CG practices in similar way with increasing board independent, separate board leadership, important board committees, board education, and participation in the post-crisis reform regime. Accordingly, there is a firm-level CG convergence within companies of an individual country, i.e. intra-convergence, and companies across the countries, i.e. inter-convergence. Notwithstanding, the study does not find the unconditional convergence in all CG variables. Additionally, it observes that the firm-level CG convergence is moderated by firm-specific factors.

Outcomes of the study have the implication to understand the complicated changing aspects of internal CG practices in emerging economies which, in turn, can help to formulate and implement effective CG structure so that firms can tackle adverse effects of any further economic crisis. Because this paper highlights that the firms in these emerging economies have enough room yet to improve their CG practices to become internationally competitive.

This paper demonstrates how internal CG practices may evolve and converge in emerging Southeast Asian economies. Results related to moderating factors of firm-level CG convergence contribute in literature by exploring a new dimension of CG convergence.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the convergence hypothesis of House Price Index (HPI) in the case of 18 major Indian cities for the period 2014–2019.

To attain the authors main goal, this study applies a clustering algorithm advanced by Phillips and Sul. This test creates a club of convergence based on the growth of the cities in terms of HPI.

The study findings show the existence of two convergence clubs and one non-convergent group. Club 1 includes the cities with high HPI growth, whereas club 2 comprises of cities with least HPI growth. Cities belonging to the non-convergent group are neither converging nor diverging.

This study findings will benefit home buyers, sellers, investors, regulators and policymakers interested in the dynamic interlinkages of house price (HP) among Indian cities.

The majority of the studies are conducted in the case of China at the province or city levels. Furthermore, in the case of India, none of the studies has investigated the HP club convergence across Indian cities. Therefore, the present study fills this research gap by examining the HP club convergence across Indian cities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the overall perceptions of accounting academics from Japan and Australia about global convergence of accounting education; and their beliefs about the contextual factors affecting the goal of global convergence.

The sample of this research was collected via a questionnaire-based survey of accounting academics who were teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate level in tertiary institutes in Japan and Australia. This study adapted the questionnaire originally used by Sugahara (2013) to extend the survey of accounting academics in Japan, to accounting academics in Australia. The questionnaire administered in this research asked their overall perceptions regarding the convergence of accounting education and associated contextual factors.

Findings reveal some similarities and differences across contextual factors that influence academic perceptions about global convergence. Further the authors identify a link between academic position and respondent views of global convergence.

The findings of this cross-country study provide insights for the International Accounting Education Standards Boards (IAESB) about the views of a key stakeholder group, accounting academics. Further the authors recommend the development of a communications strategy that targets accounting academics, and better explains the work of the IAESB and the intended value of global convergence using IES.

EU countries, including those in Central and Eastern Europe, seem to have increasingly similar economies, allowing for the study of real convergence as a process of equalising income levels (measured by GDP per capita). Studies of income convergence in the European Union also have a regional dimension and often focus on convergence at the NUTS2 or NUTS3 regional level. The level of development and income in Polish regions differ significantly. The regional policy implemented at the national and EU level focuses on reducing these differences.

The main aim of the chapter is to analyse the income convergence process among regions in Poland and verify the effectiveness of regional policy implemented at the national and EU level.

The study uses Barro type regression for panel data, log t convergence test, and club clustering algorithm introduced by Phillips and Sul to identify patterns of club convergence in Polish regions. The data used for the study is the Local Data Bank provided by Statistics Poland, which includes gross domestic product per capita at the NUTS-3 level for 73 Polish regions over the period of 2000–2020.

The results of the study indicate a very weak convergence process for all Polish NUTS-3 regions and suggest a club convergence. The club convergence is characterised by regions with similar income levels clustering together. The regional distribution of clubs is similar to the regional distribution of income. The study's findings provide important insights into the effectiveness of regional policy in Poland and suggest that policymakers need to focus on policies that promote catch-up growth in less developed regions. The study also highlights the importance of supporting the most developed regions in the country as they can play a crucial role in driving the country's economic growth and prosperity.

The purpose of this study is to examine the club convergence of Financial integration (FI) in the case of 60 countries from 1970 to 2015. FI plays a vital role in economic growth through sharing the risk between countries, cross-border capital association, investment and financial information. It also leads to the efficient allocation of capital and capital accumulation, thereby improving the systematic growth and productivity of the economy. Literature on examining the convergence hypothesis of FI is scarce.

This study applies the clustering algorithm to identify club convergence, advanced by the Phillips and Sul test, which enables the identification of multiple steady states or club convergence, unlike beta and sigma convergences.

The findings indicate the non-convergence when all 60 countries were taken together. This highlights that the selected countries' have unique transition paths in terms of FI. Hence, the authors implement the clustering algorithm, and the estimation shows that 56 countries are categorised into three different clubs. However, for the rest of four countries, the results are sort of ambiguous, favouring neither convergence nor divergence.

On the basis of three country clubs, Club 1 presents the model countries such as the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland. The Club 2 and Club 3 countries can start making moves towards the model countries by making policy adaptations for trade, finance and business facilitation.

The existing literature provides a plethora of studies investigating the convergence of stock markets, exchange rates and equity markets, but studies on the convergence of FI, particularly across the countries, are scarce. This study contributes by bridging this gap. The study is unique in its type as it takes into account the multiple steady states or club convergence. This study also contributes in policymaking by suggesting Club 1 countries (the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland) as the model ones for the FI.