Mathematics in Education, Research and Applications (MERAA), 2016(2), 2

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Received 2016-07-29 ǀ Accepted 2016-09-29 ǀ Published online 2016-12-21
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.15414/meraa.2016.02.02.41-47

Measuring the economic convergence by the OLS method. The European case

Martin Mariš
Slovak university of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Department of Regional and Rural Development

Article Fulltext (PDF), pp. 41–47: Rural regions within the European Union, in despite of the urbanization process and long term urban migration patterns, represent a significant part of the territory and portion of labor stock. Regional policy has been in place since 1957 (Treaty of Rome) however, it has not been enough effective in order to mitigating the regional inequalities across its member states, despite significant investment spent on employment and growth. Regional inequalities evenly widened due to the entrance of new states of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004 and 2007. Paper is focused on measuring the process of economic convergence, exclusive among the predominantly rural regions within the member states of EU in time period 2003-2013. For the purpose of measuring the convergence process, we opted for a beta-convergence approach via using of cross-sectional linear regression analysis. The next focus is given on the examining of the sigma-convergence, which is tested by the standard deviation of real GDP per capita. Results have shown up statistically significant economic convergence between the rural regions in selected time period. Furthermore, lower standard deviation in regional inequalities between the rural regions in selected time period also has been recorded. Thus, continuing economic convergence process among the member states of EU we cannot rule out.; Keywords: economic convergence, rural regions, income inequality, beta-convergence, sigma-convergence; JEL Classification: D20, D40, M10