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This paper discusses the nominal and real convergence regarding Greece being a country-member of the European Union (EU), and of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). We argued that nominal convergence is relative to Maastricht criteria when real convergence has been investigated through six different axes: (1) the five Maastricht Criteria, (2) the GDP per capita in PPP prices, (3) the real GDP growth rates, (4) the minimum wages, (5) the HDI index development, and (6) the unemployment rates. We concluded for the case of Greece that by utilizing alternative indicators, such as the Maastricht criteria, and the above criteria only nominal convergence exists while real convergence appears to be a long-term target with many obstacles. In particular, Greece has managed to achieve the criteria proposed by the EMU (Maastricht Criteria) for membership, decisively different levels of unemployment, wages, and GDP growth rate/GDP per capita in PPP prices, and different human development indexes appear for the case of Greece.

“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.

Purpose – In this paper we analyze the relationship between economic convergence with the European Union (EU) and foreign direct investment flows to five EU countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Hungary) in the period 2001–2010, in order to determine if the process of economic convergence with the EU level influences FDI inflows in these economies. The paper covers an important research question and reveals empirical findings for the new EU member states.

Methodology – This paper uses a quantitative analysis based on a convergence index creation, and also an exploratory data analysis in order to determine how economic convergence with the EU level influences FDI inflows. The economic convergence index is made up of two equal parts, more exactly a real convergence index and a structural convergence index, and is computed by comparison with the EU average.

Findings – The study does not provide us with a clear answer to our question regarding the influence of the convergence process on the level of FDI attracted by a country. We report a tight relationship between convergence index and FDI inflows in Bulgaria, but quite divergent evolutions of the two variables in the case of Hungary. For the other three countries the indicators fluctuate a lot.

Originality – The main contribution of the paper is represented by additional empirical evidence on economic convergence and FDI inflows for the new EU member states. The empirical research in this area is at an early stage and even though the existing stage does not provide us with accurate conclusions, the theme remains important for the business environment.

Another important contribution of the study consists of creating an economic convergence index that is composed by both real and structural indexes and that offers valuable information regarding the economic evolution of the new EU member states.

This chapter aims to analyze whether member countries of the Pacific Alliance agreement showed economic and financial convergence during the 2010–2016 period. The sample consists of four Latin American countries that are members of the Alianza del Pacífico (Pacific Alliance): Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. We use an economic convergence index (ECI) to classify the degree of the countries’ convergence regarding a given monetary area, considering the size of their economy, and compute three criteria: (1) nominal variables (used to define the Maastricht criteria), which are inflation, long-term interest rates, public debt, fiscal deficit as percentages of gross domestic product (GDP), and exchange rate volatility; (2) real and cyclical variables such as real GDP growth, gap between real GDP and potential GDP, unemployment, current account balance as a percentage of GDP, and short-term interest rates; and (3) a conditional combination that unequally weights nominal and real variables. We also use correlation analysis to compare coefficients. The results can be analyzed in the medium term in terms of descriptive statistics of their real and nominal variables, convergence indexes, and correlation analysis. The results show that the countries of the Pacific Alliance under study are converging in terms of nominal variables such as interest rate, exchange rate, fiscal deficits, and government debt. Also it can be observed that convergence occurs in real and weighted variables, although to a lesser magnitude. In relation to real variables related to GDP growth and foreign trade, these variables adjust less quickly than nominal ones.

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 aim of this chapter is to examine the nominal and real convergence of Czechia. The importance of the convergence of Czechia with the euro area is linked to the future intention of joining the Economic and Monetary Union after the Maastricht criteria are met. This chapter covers the period from 2004 to 2021. We argue that nominal convergence is relative to the Maastricht criteria, when real convergence focuses on different areas: the Maastricht criteria, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in purchasing power standards and real GDP growth rate, labour market (minimum labour costs and unemployment rates. Findings suggest that Czechia has reported the strongest real convergence in the area of relative economic level, moderate convergence of labour costs and divergence of unemployment. The nominal convergence analysis suggests that Czechia will not meet the Maastricht benchmarks in the near future and is not ready to join the euro area given its high inflation rate and the state of public finances.

The unexpected Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010–2012) aroused different attempts of interpretation among analysts and practitioners. While some attributed the crisis to a “contagion” effect of the Subprime Mortgages Financial Crisis in the United States (2007–2009), others saw in it an expression of deeper fundamental economic imbalances.

This chapter presents an evaluation of whether there is convergence or divergence in the sectorial international competitiveness of the Eurozone area countries. A Dynamic Panel Data analysis on country-level exports for all Eurozone members for a period that goes from 1993 to 2014 finds significant evidence of international competitiveness convergence in four- out of 10-export sectors, and no significant evidence of divergence in the rest. While that evidence is not consistent with the high expectations generated by monetary integration more than 15 years ago, those four sectors correspond to high value-added economic activities and, in that sense, indicate a more homogeneous productive modernization process is taking place in the area.

Does education still serve as a great equalizer today? Does today’s worldwide expansion of schooling foster a global economic convergence? These questions need fresh answers at this time of growing concern over inequality. Past studies have abundantly documented the effects of schooling on within-country inequality, but we know little about corresponding effects on between-country inequality. We fill this gap by drawing on two innovations. The first is to formulate a theory of global inequality that integrates international differences in both the quantity and quality of education. The second, methodological, innovation is to propose and apply a method for decomposing trends in global inequality in GDP in terms of five social forces that include the quantity and quality of schooling. Analyses focus on the 1990–2010 period. The results confirm the continued salience of education: Trends in education account for as much as 80% of the 1990–2010 decline in between-country GDP inequality. However, we find a declining significance of “quantity” over “quality.” In sum, education remains salient as a global equalizer but its salience increasingly depends on bridging international differences in school quality.

The unequal distribution of economic activities, transposed in economic, social and territorial disparities is the general characteristic of the European economy. Gaps increased in the context of European Union (EU) enlargement towards Eastern and Central Europe and of the economic crisis, thus bringing new differentiations among member states’ economies. The main aim of the chapter is to emphasise the centre-periphery differentiations in the European economy, by using a composite index of peripherality, in order to better understand the determinants of growth and convergence in Central and Eastern European countries and to reach normative conclusions for increasing Cohesion Policy (CP) effectiveness. The first part of the chapter provides a short overview of the main theories and models of the peripherality analysis and the relationships between the centre and the periphery, in order to find out how this analysis relates to the research in the field. The second part provides a comparative analysis of the evolution of European economies during 2003–2014, in order to find out whether the EU enlargement process stabilised the EU core-periphery pattern or, on the contrary, the process of core-periphery structural convergence occurred. The third part includes the suggested model of analysis (methodology, data, and main results) from a multidisciplinary perspective, underlining the centre-periphery differentiations on the two axes, North–South and West–East. The results have been interpreted in conclusions, with a focus on their relevance for the European CP challenges.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze whether sufficient conditions can be met for Turkey and the Balkan and Caucasian Republics to achieve future integration within Europe because Turkey's accession to the European Union (EU) would provide opportunities for further enlargement of the Union toward the East. The paper is developed through three steps: In the first place we will select a group of countries belonging to the Southeastern Europe, Transcaucasia, and the Near-East, which could fulfill at medium term the requirements established by the European Councils of Copenhagen (1993), Madrid (1995), and Helsinki (1999) to be members of the EU in a future. Second, starting from the period 2000–2010, we estimate the possible existence of economic convergence in terms of real per capita income between these countries and the current EU at 27 members. Finally, we analyze whether the entrance of some of those countries in the EU could help to solve some local existing conflicts in the area, especially in the Middle-East.

For the above-mentioned purposes, first, we have selected potential candidates for a future adhesion to EU among the current official candidates, other countries that have already demanded the adhesion, and those other countries in the area for which the EU applies the neighborhood policy. We have selected these countries by using a multicriteria analysis. Second, following Quah (1996), we test the possible existence of several steady states in the EU at 27 members, and hence the possibility of Clubs Convergence in Europe. Also by using the Barro (1991) and Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) models, we test Absolute and Conditional Economic Convergence among all EU-27 countries and between each potential candidate, weighted by surface and population, with the EU-27, during the period 2000–2010.

The obtained results indicate the existence of Clubs Convergence in EU-27 because at least there are two steady states. Multicriteria analysis indicates that the following countries fulfill the requirements of the EU at medium term: Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Lebanon. The convergence analysis indicates Conditional Convergence between the selected countries and the EU.

The research limitations are that this paper only considers countries belonging to this area. The EU expansion could solve conflicts in the European–Asian border, like Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kurdish, and other Middle East conflicts. Lebanon is a country that clearly belongs to Asia, but notwithstanding it appears as a possible candidate to enter in the EU considering our multicriteria analysis.