Evidence for economic convergence in the EU: the analysis of past EU enlargements

Abstract

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