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This paper discusses the evidence of economic convergence in the European Union during the past several decades and consecutive EU enlargements. We cluster different member states of the European Union by groups representing countries that joined the EU together and analyze whether these clusters converge against each other. In addition, we analyse whether there is a convergence within different groups of countries. We employ real GDP per capita in its seasonally adjusted version as the measure of convergence. Our results reveal that there is not much evidence about the existence of economic convergence within the European Union. First published online:21 May 2015

This paper discusses the evidence of economic convergence in the European Union during the past several decades and consecutive EU enlargements. We cluster different member states of the European Union by groups representing countries that joined the EU together and analyze whether these clusters converge against each other. In addition, we analyse whether there is a convergence within different groups of countries. We employ real GDP per capita in its seasonally adjusted version as the measure of convergence. Our results reveal that there is not much evidence about the existence of economic convergence within the European Union. First published online:21 May 2015

AbstractOur paper analysesUkrainian migration and remittances in theCzechRepublic using the data from aUkrainianMigrationProject (UMP) survey. Due to its advantageous geographical location in the heart ofEurope, theCzechRepublic attracts the considerable part of foreign labour among allCentral andEasternEuropean countries (CEE), withUkrainian workers being the largest group. Our results reveal that the main determinants ofUkrainian labour migration in theCzechRepublic are demographic and economic, while the human capital turns out to be insignificant. We also find that the majority of the remittances earned in theCzechRepublic go to the construction of houses inUkraine. Our findings of determinants and motives of migration and remittances might help policy‐makers on both sides of the migration corridor to formulate proper policies aiming at enhancing theUkrainian remittance transfers fromCEECsand ameliorating the quality of life inUkraine.

In this paper we test the model explaining the inter-dependence between the pollutants and the economic development in the Czech Republic. We calculate the relationship known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) by estimating the relationship between the environmental pollution expressed by CO2 and SO2 emissions per capita and the GDP per capita for the Czech Republic for the period from 1990 to 2009. Our findings reveal that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for the Czech Republic holds in the case of estimating the inter-dependence between GDP per capita and sulphur dioxide.

This paper analyzes possible incidences of Turkish EU accession on the emigration from Turkey to the European Union. Panel data estimators are applied on the emigration data from EU-18 into Germany in order to construct possible future scenarios of Turkish migration to the EU. Eventual migration flows from Turkey into the EU are forecasted based on the estimated results. We find that seemingly unrelated regressor is the most efficient estimator that can be applied in Turkey-EU migration framework. Our results reveal that both the network effect and target country labour market conditions represent the strongest determinants for migration, whilst the effect of per capita income is actually relatively low. In particular, Turkish per capita income does not have nearly any effect on migration, because it enters the model in two variables that work against each other. Furthermore, a very low importance of opening the German labour market for Turkish migrants is found. Estimated coefficients are used to predict migrations to Germany and through appropriate extrapolations to the whole European Union (EU). Three scenarios of migration are created and the sensitivity of estimated coefficients on migration from Turkey into the Germany during next 25 years is further discussed in detail.

The deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) is considered to be an important objective for the energy sector in the European Union (EU). The EU Directive adapted in 2009 fixed mandatory national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport as well as for the share of RES in the gross final energy consumption. Contrary to previous studies, this paper does not examine the link between the RES and economic growth but rather focuses on real gross domestic product (GDP) and the implementation of national renewable energy targets. We employ panel data models for the case of the EU-28 countries covering the period between 2007 and 2017 that yield a low and positive relationship between the impact of GDP per capita and the share of RES in the final consumption. Our results show that there is a significant causality only from real GDP per capita to the share of renewable energy in final consumption, marking the potential of developed countries to consume more RES. We list some groups of countries according to these variables using a cluster analysis approach. Starting from the proposed panel data models, we constructed the scenarios for the 2020 for various shares of RES and different EU Member States. Overall, it appears that more attention should be attributed to policy proposals in which funding opportunities would be dependent on the achievements of national targets and economic benefits should be given to countries with very good performance in achieving high shares of renewable energy in their final energy consumption.

The deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) is considered to be an important objective for the energy sector in the European Union (EU). The EU Directive adapted in 2009 fixed mandatory national targets for the use of renewable energy in transport as well as for the share of RES in the gross final energy consumption. Contrary to previous studies, this paper does not examine the link between the RES and economic growth but rather focuses on real gross domestic product (GDP) and the implementation of national renewable energy targets. We employ panel data models for the case of the EU-28 countries covering the period between 2007 and 2017 that yield a low and positive relationship between the impact of GDP per capita and the share of RES in the final consumption. Our results show that there is a significant causality only from real GDP per capita to the share of renewable energy in final consumption, marking the potential of developed countries to consume more RES. We list some groups of countries according to these variables using a cluster analysis approach. Starting from the proposed panel data models, we constructed the scenarios for the 2020 for various shares of RES and different EU Member States. Overall, it appears that more attention should be attributed to policy proposals in which funding opportunities would be dependent on the achievements of national targets and economic benefits should be given to countries with very good performance in achieving high shares of renewable energy in their final energy consumption.

The main goal of our paper was to apply our research methodology on the specific case of the Ukrainian migration and remittances in the Czech Republic. In contrast to previous studies, we provide a more detailed insight into the specifications of remittance behaviour and test assumptions in the Ukraine-Czech Republic country models. A range of testing is defined by the hypotheses capturing determinants of probability to send mo ney transfers, their volume, spending behaviour and probability of having skilled position. Our results demonstrate that reverse economic effects of remittances on the source country might be simply combination of regular and occasional form with different weight. Therefore, we conclude that the development of migration policy should not neglect microeconomic effects that have potential to solve aggregate level problems .