European regional convergence revisited: The role of space and the intangible assets

The number of contributions that have evaluated the convergence patterns across European regions using a wide variety of approaches is now substantial. However, if we focus on the most recent period (2003–2009), the number of contributions shrinks dramatically, and those considering the role of the intangible assets in the enlarged European Union are entirely yet to come. This article focuses on the convergence patterns of income per capita in 216 European regions during the period 1995–2009. Following the distribution dynamics approach, several conditioning schemes are considered, including geography and a set of intangible assets. Opposite to studies focused on earlier periods, the results suggest an intense process of convergence, especially in the most recent years. In addition, while the conditioning factors introduced in the analysis played a remarkable role at the beginning of the analyzed period (1995), facilitating convergence, their influence gradually decreases over time, indicating that regional convergence has obeyed to other forces in the latest years.