IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000443/017773.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic convergence of the Western Balkans towards the EU-15

Author

Listed:
  • Sándor Gyula Nagy
  • Dzenita Siljak

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the beta convergence of Western Balkan countries towards the EU-15 Member States in the period 2004-2016, and two sub-periods: 2004-2008 and 2009-2013. Beta convergence is based on the neoclassical growth theory and tests the hypothesis that poor countries tend to grow faster than rich countries, in per capita terms. The empirical findings support the economic convergence hypothesis, with convergence rates ranging from 1.1% to 2.3%. The results show that the recent financial crisis negatively affected the absolute and conditional convergence process, when economic variables are included. The main limitation of the research is the availability of data.

Suggested Citation

  • Sándor Gyula Nagy & Dzenita Siljak, 2019. "Economic convergence of the Western Balkans towards the EU-15," Revista Finanzas y Politica Economica, Universidad Católica de Colombia, vol. 11(1), pages 41-53, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000443:017773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://editorial.ucatolica.edu.co/index.php/RFYPE/article/view/2873
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berend,Ivan T., 2016. "An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316501856, October.
    2. Eftychia Tsanana & Constantinos Katrakilidis & Panagiotis Pantelidis, 2013. "Balkan Area and EU-15: An Empirical Investigation of Income Convergence," Contributions to Economics, in: Anastasios Karasavvoglou & Persefoni Polychronidou (ed.), Balkan and Eastern European Countries in the Midst of the Global Economic Crisis, edition 127, pages 23-33, Springer.
    3. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    4. Brian Micallef, "undated". "The process of economic convergence in Malta and in the European Union," CBM Policy Papers PP/02/2017, Central Bank of Malta.
    5. Magdalena Morgese Borys & Éva Katalin Polgár & Andrei Zlate, 2008. "Real convergence and the determinants of growth in EU candidate and potential candidate countries - a panel data approach," Occasional Paper Series 86, European Central Bank.
    6. Morgese Borys, Magdalena & Polgár, Éva Katalin & Zlate, Andrei, 2008. "Real convergence and the determinants of growth in EU candidate and potential candidate countries: a panel data approach," Occasional Paper Series 86, European Central Bank.
    7. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    8. Leon Podkaminer, 2013. "Development Patterns of Central and East European Countries (in the course of transition and following EU accession)," wiiw Research Reports 388, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    9. Istvan Benczes & Balazs Szent-Ivanyi, 2015. "The European Economy in 2014: Fragile Recovery and Convergence," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53, pages 162-180, September.
    10. Jalal El Ouardighi & Rabija Somun-Kapetanovic, 2005. "Do Balkan countries have a European Future ? An analysis of real economic convergence, 1989-2005," Post-Print hal-00279254, HAL.
    11. Vojinović, Borut & Acharya, Sanjaya & Próchniak, Mariusz, 2009. "Convergence Analysis Among the Ten European Transition Economies," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 50(2), pages 17-35, December.
    12. Żuk, Piotr & Savelin, Li, 2018. "Real convergence in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe," Occasional Paper Series 212, European Central Bank.
    13. Dzenita Siljak & Sándor Gyula Nagy, 2018. "The Effects of the Crisis on the Convergence Process of the Western Balkan Countries towards the European Union," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 40(1), pages 105-124, March.
    14. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1994. "Cross-sectional regressions and the empirics of economic growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 739-747, April.
    15. Ivo Bićanić & Milan Deskar-Škrbić & Jurica Zrnc, 2016. "A Narrative Explanation of Breakpoints and Convergence Patterns in Yugoslavia and its Successor States 1952-2015," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 122, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    16. Eva Jelnikar & Urban Murmayer, 2006. "Convergence in Europe: Empirical Analysis on Two Groups of Countries of the European Union," Papers of the Annual IUE-SUNY Cortland Conference in Economics, in: Oguz Esen & Ayla Ogus (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources, pages 249-263, Izmir University of Economics.
    17. Marcin Grela & Aleksandra Majchrowska & Tomasz Michałek & Jakub Mućk & Agnieszka Stążka-Gawrysiak & Grzegorz Tchorek & Marcin Wagner, 2017. "Is Central and Eastern Europe converging towards the EU-15?," NBP Working Papers 264, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    18. Berend,Ivan T., 2016. "An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107136427, October.
    19. Żuk, Piotr & Polgár, Éva Katalin & Savelin, Li & Diaz del Hoyo, Juan Luis & König, Paul, 2018. "Real convergence in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe," Economic Bulletin Articles, European Central Bank, vol. 3.
    20. Olcay COLAK, 2015. "Convergence Revisited: Case Of Eu And Eastern Europe," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(1), pages 69-81, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Siljak Dzenita, 2018. "Beta Convergence among Former Socialist Countries," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 72-83, December.
    2. Dzenita SILJAK & Sándor Gyula NAGY, 2018. "Economic convergence of the Eastern Partnership countries towards the EU-13," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 9, pages 169-185, December.
    3. Siljak Dzenita & Nagy Sándor Gyula, 2019. "Do Transition Countries Converge towards the European Union?," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 9(1), pages 115-139, June.
    4. Dzenita Siljak & Sandor Gyula Nagy, 2021. "The Effects of the Crisis on Convergence between the Eastern Partnership and EU-15 States," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 7, pages 3-18.
    5. Maciej Stefański, 2020. "To What Extent does Convergence Explain the Slowdown in Potential Growth of the CEE Countries Following the Global Financial Crisis?," KAE Working Papers 2020-058, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    6. Dimitar Eftimoski, 2020. "Some new insights on economic convergence and growth in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 863-884, November.
    7. Ovidiu Stoica & Angela Roman & Delia-Elena Diaconașu, 2019. "Real Convergence and European Integration with Focus on the New Member States," Scientific Annals of Economics and Business (continues Analele Stiintifice), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 66(si), pages 215-228, December.
    8. Xanthippi Chapsa & Athanasios L. Athanasenas & Nikolaos Tabakis, 2019. "Real Convergence in EU-15: A Comparative Analysis of North versus South Europe," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 3-21.
    9. Żuk, Piotr & Savelin, Li, 2018. "Real convergence in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe," Occasional Paper Series 212, European Central Bank.
    10. Lehmann, Hartmut & Silvagni, Maria Giulia, 2013. "Is There Convergence of Russia's Regions? Exploring the Empirical Evidence: 1995–2010," IZA Discussion Papers 7603, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. E. Tsanana & X. Chapsa & C. Katrakilidis, 2016. "Is growth corrupted or bureaucratic? Panel evidence from the enlarged EU," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(33), pages 3131-3147, July.
    12. Turnovsky, S., 2000. "Growth in an Open Economy: some Recent Developments," Papers 5, Warwick - Development Economics Research Centre.
    13. Jordan Rappaport, 2000. "How does openness to capital flows affect growth?," Research Working Paper RWP 00-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    14. Celine Bonnefond, 2014. "Growth Dynamics And Conditional Convergence Among Chinese Provinces: A Panel Data Investigation Using System Gmm Estimator," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Monfort, Mercedes & Cuestas, Juan Carlos & Ordóñez, Javier, 2013. "Real convergence in Europe: A cluster analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 689-694.
    16. Poot, Jacques, 1999. "A meta-analytic study of the role of government in long-run economic growth," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa171, European Regional Science Association.
    17. Athanasios Athanasenas & Xanthippi Chapsa & Athanasios Michailidis, 2015. "Investigating Social Protection Convergence in the EU-15: A Panel Data Analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 79-96.
    18. Smolny, Werner, 1995. "International sectoral spillovers: An empircal analysis for German and US Industries," Discussion Papers 29, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    19. Roses, Joan R. & Wolf, Nikolaus, 2018. "Regional economic development in Europe, 1900-2010: a description of the patterns," Economic History Working Papers 87242, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    20. Kenneth Button, 2011. "The Economist’s Perspective on Regional Endogenous Development," Chapters, in: Robert Stimson & Roger R. Stough & Peter Nijkamp (ed.), Endogenous Regional Development, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Beta convergence; Western Balkans; European Union; old Member States; economic growth.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000443:017773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Universidad Católica de Colombia (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feuccco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.