Regional disparities in the EU: mobility and polarization

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse some relevant aspects of regional disparities in the EU. The paper departs from standard analysis of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire distribution, both by using nonparametric techniques and spatial econometric techniques. The main results confirm that: (a) regional disparities across the EU are large and persistent; (b) the ranking among the European regions is very stable; (c) there is a noticeable regional income polarization in Europe.

Notes

¹ An application of this approach to the EU regions can be seen in Villaverde (2003).

²  Apart from some exceptions, the mass is, more or less, concentrated around the positive diagonal.

³ The kernel is concentrated around the vertical line at 1.