In this paper, the process of productivity convergence is investigated for the enlarged European Union using regional (NUTS-2) data. The Solow model extended by human capital is employed as a workhorse. Alternative strategies are proposed to control for spatial effects. All specifications...

Some recent papers by Dell et al. (2009) and Dell et al. (2012) (DJO) relating weather and economic outcomes, have delivered meaningful messages with clear implications to the effects of a changing climate. In a nutshell, the authors claim that a 1°C increase in global average temperatures...

This paper sets out to examine the impact of the quality of local and regional governments on the returns of investment, focusing on the returns of EU structural and cohesion funds. Despite the widespread belief that the quality of government affects the returns of public investments, whether...

This paper analyzes the impact of the German structure program "Joint Task for the Improvement of Regional Economic Structures" (GRW) on regional economic growth. The paper extends the existing literature by several aspects. First of all, using the popular augmented Solow model by Mankiw et al....

A major objective of this study is to analyse the evolutionary patterns of regional linkages and disparities across the EU space, especially those related to rural and peripheral/remote regions. In particular, this report assesses the economy-wide effects, in terms of GDP and employment,...

The European Union (EU) provides grants to disadvantaged regions of member states to allow them to catch up with the EU average. Under the Objective 1 scheme, NUTS2 regions with a GDP per capita level below 75% of the EU average qualify for structural funds transfers from the central EU budget....

The aim of this paper is to empirically identify convergence clubs in per capita incomes of European regions and to investigate whether initial conditions - as suggested by the club convergence hypothesis - are responsible for club formation. To tackle this issue, we propose a two-step procedure...