Migration and regional convergence in the European Union

We offer an empirical, econometric analysis of the impact of migration on the EU27’s NUTS2 regions in the period 2000–2007. We find that migration had no significant impact on regional unemployment in the EU, but affected both GDP per capita and productivity. A 1 percentage point increase in immigration to immigration regions increased GDP per capita by about 0.02?% and productivity by about 0.03?% on impact and by 0.44?% for GDP per capita and 0.20?% for productivity in the long run. For emigration regions an increase in the emigration rate leads to similar reductions of GDP per capita and productivity both on impact and in the long run. Since immigration regions are often regions with above average GDP, while emigration regions in Europe practically all have below average GDP, migration does not seem to promote convergence.     

Testing convergence of European regions: A semiparametric approach

We provide a reappraisal of income convergence across European regions over the last two decades by using a semiparametric partially linear model to approximate the relationship between the average growth rate of GDP per capita and the initial GDP per capita. Estimation results point out both country heterogeneity and non-linearity in the convergence process. The findings suggest that low income regions, in particular those from new adhesion countries, diverge while medium income regions converge and that there is no evidence of convergence for high income regions.     

Too much of a good thing? On the growth effects of the EU's regional policy

The European Union (EU) provides grants to disadvantaged regions of member states from two pools, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The main goal of the associated transfers is to facilitate convergence of poor regions (in terms of per-capita income) to the EU average. We use data at the NUTS3 level from the last two EU budgetary periods (1994–1999 and 2000–2006) and generalized propensity score estimation to analyze to which extent the goal of fostering growth in the target regions was achieved with the funds provided and whether or not more transfers generated stronger growth effects. We find that, overall, EU transfers enable faster growth in the recipient regions as intended, but we estimate that in 36% of the recipient regions the transfer intensity exceeds the aggregate efficiency maximizing level and in 18% of the regions a reduction of transfers would not even reduce their growth. We conclude that some reallocation of the funds across target regions would lead to higher aggregate growth in the EU and could generate even faster convergence than the current scheme does.     

What drives inequality and poverty in the EU? Exploring the impact of macroeconomic and institutional factors

Employing panel data techniques, we investigate the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of inequality and poverty in the EU over the period 1994–2008. We pay particular attention to the effects of macroeconomic environment, social protection and labour market institutions. The empirical analysis shows that the social transfers in cash, and principally the transfers that do not include pensions, exert a prominent impact on inequality and poverty. Also significant is the effect of the GDP per capita. The impact of employment on inequality and poverty is not empirically sound. The same holds for the labour market institutions; an exception is the union density, which appears conducive to a less dispersed personal income distribution. Importantly, the results support the view that the social protection system acts as a catalyst in determining the effectiveness of social spending and the distributive role of economic growth and employment.     

A spatial econometric analysis of the regional growth and volatility in Europe

Based on a sample of 1,084 European regions (EU15) from 1995 to 2004, we estimate the relationship between the average growth rate of GDP per capita and the volatility of the growth rate allowing for spatial effects. The spatial lag and spatial error models show that the regional per capita growth rate and volatility are significantly positively related on average. However, the inclusion of country interaction terms reveals that the volatility impact is not uniform across countries. In particular, the relationship between growth and volatility is significantly positive for the majority of countries but significantly negative for three countries (namely Finland, Italy, and Ireland).

中国地区居民生活水平比较——基于全球夜间灯光数据

当衡量一国或地区居民生活水平时,统计学上一般有收入和消费两种视角。本文利用城乡住户调查中的人均可支配收入和国民经济核算中的居民消费水平,以全球夜间灯光数据为参照,综合收入端与消费端信息,对1997—2016年中国31个地区的真实生活水平进行比较分析。研究证实,灯光亮度与消费水平和人均可支配收入之间均存在显著的线性关系,可以用来估算真实生活水平。根据不同模型的回归结果得到,真实生活水平的最优无偏估计中消费水平的权重范围为（2795%,3831%）,人均可支配收入水平的权重范围为（6169%,7205%）。相对于消费水平,人均可支配收入更能准确地反映真实生活水平。本文进一步分析发现,样本期内居民生活水平增速小于人均GDP增速,可见经济的发展并未完全转化为生活水平的提高。中西部地区与东部地区的生活水平仍然存在巨大差距,东部地区的平均生活水平分别是中部和西部地区的17倍和21倍。     

Structural Operations and Net Migration Across European Union Member Countries

This paper analyzes the effects of international transfers to finance infrastructure on net migration flows among countries within the EU. A new economic geography model is employed with common pool financed infrastructure investments to derive a set of empirically testable hypotheses about the effects of transfer payments to finance infrastructure investments on migration. A significant effect of structural fund expenditures is identified on the bilateral net migration of workers among the EU member countries. On average, a one percentage point increase in the expenditures on structural funds (in per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)) leads to a reduction in the measure of bilateral net migration by about 0.4–0.8%.     

Inequality and economic growth: the role of initial income

We estimate a panel model where the relationship between inequality and GDP per capita growth depends on countries’ initial incomes. Estimates of the model show that the relationship between inequality and GDP per capita growth is significantly decreasing in countries’ initial incomes. Results from instrumental variables regressions show that in Low Income Countries transitional growth is boosted by greater income inequality. In High Income Countries inequality has a significant negative effect on transitional growth. For the median country in the world, that in the year 2015 had a PPP GDP per capita of around 10000USD, IV estimates predict that a 1 percentage point increase in the Gini coefficient decreases GDP per capita growth over a 5-year period by over 1 percentage point; the long-run effect on the level of GDP per capita is around ??5%.     

The effect of the Troubles on GDP in Northern Ireland

This paper explores the effect of conflict on GDP in Northern Ireland. A synthetic control region constructed as a weighted average of other UK regions provides an estimate of counterfactual ‘no-conflict’ GDP. Comparing this with actual per capita GDP suggests a negative impact of up to 10%. Excluding the increased grants provided in response to the conflict, a 15–20% reduction is evident. Most forms of terrorist activity had negative effects over the period 1969–1997. Deaths attributable to Republican paramilitary groups or to the State appear to have a greater and more lasting impact on GDP than deaths attributable to Loyalist paramilitaries.     

“The winner takes it all” or a story of the optimal allocation of the European Cohesion Fund

This paper aims to determine an optimal allocation of the European Cohesion Fund (ECF) and compares it with the observed allocation. This optimal allocation is the solution of a donor optimization problem which maximizes recipient countries' GDP per capita to achieve economic convergence in the European Union. Compared to the observed allocation, our solution can identify the recipient countries that can benefit from higher ECF transfers than the observed levels, as those having low relative GDP per capita, large population size and where the ECF has a strong capacity to support economic growth. Result is robust to changes in the specification of the donor's utility function.     

Technological innovations and economic prosperity: A time series analysis

Using a univariate decomposition of per capita real GDP into its permanent trend and irregular components, the objective of this paper is to measure, rank, and compare the relative importance of the major technological innovations of the past two centuries as measured by their contribution to the growth rate of real per capita GDP. The paper uses the growth model and Beveridge and Nelson’s (1981) univariate decomposition method to measure and to compare the economic impact of random technological shocks, as measured by the average increase in real per capita GDP during sub-periods of major technological advancements.     

中国区域经济分化与空间动能解析

1949—2019年，中国各省份经济总量不平等程度先下降后上升，在近十年的短周期内也呈现先下降后上升的态势；而人均实际GDP不平等程度则处于水平波动的状态，近年来呈现σ趋同态势，并在2019年出现β趋同的新迹象。创新能力较弱、政府债务率偏高和劳动人口占比偏低是当前落后地区增长动能匮乏的重要原因。研发支出、资本存量和就业规模是区域经济差距形成的主要原因，可以解释1999—2019年省级层面GDP差异的889%和人均GDP差异的591%，其中研发支出与就业规模是地区GDP总量分化的主因，研发支出与资本存量是地区人均GDP分化的主因。空间计量分析发现，中国区域经济增长的空间溢出效应显著存在，但研发支出、资本存量和就业规模的空间溢出效应存在明显区别，仅周边研发支出对地区经济增长存在正向空间溢出效应，并且东中西三大经济带的空间溢出效应存在一定差异。     

Taxes, Transfers, and Voter Behavior in U.S. Midterm Elections

The effects of changes in per capita real GDP, real taxes and real government transfer payments on midterm congressional election outcomes during the 1946–2002 period are examined. Voters are found to take all of these, except taxes and transfers at the state and local government levels, into account in casting their ballots. However, the weights they place on each are found not to be the same. Consequently, the common practice of summarizing the economic conditions faced by voters through disposable income seems to be inappropriate. Also, omission of tax and transfer variables from the vote equation, and using vote swing rather than vote share as the dependent variable is found to result in underestimation of the coefficient of per capita GDP growth.     

Portugal–EU Convergence Revisited: Evidence for the Period 1960–2003

This paper uses the stochastic approach to convergence to investigate whether real per capita GDP in Portugal has been converging to the EU15 average. The estimation accounts for conditional convergence, transitional dynamics and up to two structural breaks. It is found that per capita GDP in Portugal has indeed converged to the EU15 average, but the pace of convergence has not been uniform along time. In particular, a slow down in the convergence process is identified in 1974. This result depends, however, as to whether the choice of this break-date is viewed as uncorrelated with the data. No evidence of acceleration in the speed of convergence is found after EC accession, in 1986.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Fifty-Ninth International Atlantic Economic Conference, London, England, March 9–13, 2005. Helpful suggestions from the conference participants and Luis Catela Nunes are acknowledged. The author expresses his gratitude for the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under research grant POCI/EGE/55423/2004 (partially funded by FEDER).     

Inter-Region Transportation Costs,Regional Economic Growth,and Disparities in China

To examine the correlation between regional economic growth and inter-region transportation costs in China, this study establishes a regional economic growth model embedded with inter-region transportation costs based on the Cobb-Douglas production function. Based on a balanced growth empirical model, this study verifies the correlation by conducting a regression analysis of the panel data of 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions from 1985 to 2015. The empirical results show that: (1) The per capita GDP growth among the three regions (namely, the eastern, central, and western regions of China) meets a conditional convergence trend, and the decreasing of the inter-region transportation costs increases the convergence speed; (2) The per capita GDP growth is in line with the club convergence trend within each of the three regions; (3) The trend of the output elasticity of the inter-region transportation costs shows that the gradual decrease of inter-region transportation costs has a positive correlation with the narrowing of economic disparity after the year 2000, accelerating "common prosperity" across different regions in China.     

产业结构变动对区域经济增长贡献的空间分析--以河南省为例

产业结构变动是影响区域经济增长的重要因素。采用多部门经济模型和基于统计角度的GDP产业结构贡献度测算方法,以河南省为例,分析了1994—2003年10年来产业结构变动对经济增长的贡献,发现产业结构变动对区域经济增长贡献的空间差异明显,地区产业结构变动差异较大,各地产业结构调整进展不一。产业结构变动对区域经济增长的贡献与区域经济增长之间存在显著的负相关关系,经济增长率降低是结构调整的基本动力之一,而结构调整又成为经济增长的动力。影响产业结构变动对区域经济增长贡献的主要因素是区域产业结构政策和产业投资政策,人均GDP、年均GDP则与其不相关或弱相关。     

The impact of the credit crisis on poor developing countries: Growth,worker remittances,accumulation and migration

We show that the credit crisis of OECD countries has a negative impact on the growth of the world economy according to an error-correction model including China and Australia. This causes negative growth effects in poor developing countries. The reduced growth has a direct or indirect impact on the convergence issue, aid, remittances, labour force growth, investment and savings, net foreign debt, migration, tax revenues, public expenditure on education and literacy. We estimate dynamic equations of all these variables using dynamic panel data methods for a panel of countries with per capita income below $1200 (2000). The estimated equations are then integrated to a dynamic system of thirteen equations for thirteen variables that allows for highly non-linear baseline simulations for these open economies. Then we analyze the effects of transitional shocks as predicted by the international organizations for the OECD and world growth for 2008 and 2009. Whereas growth rates return to the baseline scenario until 2013 with overshooting for China and Australia, the level of the GDP per capita shows permanent effects, which are positive only for China. In the poor countries, investment, remittances, savings, tax revenues, public expenditure on education, all as a share of GDP as well as literacy and the GDP per capita, are reduced compared to the baseline until 2087 where our analysis ends. Investment, emigration and labour force growth start returning to baseline values between 2013 and 2017. GDP per capita and tax revenues start returning to baseline around 2040. Education variables do not return to baseline without additional effort.     

Exploratory spatial data analysis of the distribution of regional per capita GDP in Yangtze Delta, China: 1994-2004

Based on the spatial economy theory and the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) technology, this paper studies the space-time dynamics of regional per capita GDP in the Yangtze Delta. A sample of 74 regions in the Yangtze Delta over the period of 1994 to 2004 provides clear evidence of global and local spatial autocorrelation as well as spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of regional per capita GDP The dynamism of regions is investigated by exploring the spatial pattern of regional growth, compared with that before 1997, the economic growth disparities among Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have decreased, so have the inside regions of Zhejiang Province, while it is opposite to the inside regions of Jiangsu Province.     

我国居民消费与经济增长关系的区域差异研究

利用1997—2009年全国30个省(市、自治区)的省际面板数据,构建了我国居民消费与经济增长关系的动态面板数据模型,运用广义矩估计方法对我国居民消费与经济增长关系的区域差异进行了实证分析。结果表明:东、中、西部三大地区的当期人均实际GDP对当期人均实际居民消费均具有显著影响,且前一期人均实际居民消费对当期人均实际居民消费也均具有显著影响,但各地区的消费习惯的程度不同。     

Real Convergence and European Integration: The Experience of the Less Developed EU Members

This study aims at providing an assessment about real convergence across countriesand regions in the EU, focusing more specifically on the four cohesion EU members.The results show that in the course of the last few years a process of convergence hastaken place between the per capita income levels of the EU regions and also, to a largerextent, of the Member States. Nevertheless, advances in real convergence are largelydetermined by the growth strategy implemented by the countries themselves. Lastly,our study suggests that the Community's regional policy has played a significant rolein favor of real convergence between the Member States of the EU. One importantlesson to be drawn is that the accession is likely to contribute significantly to improvingthe possibilities of the current Central and East European countries (CEECs) candidatesin aligning their per capita income levels with those of the EU members.