Master Theses

Wednesday, 14 September, 2022

Master´s Thesis Defense Presentations

Let us invite you to the Master Thesis Defense Presentations on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.

Schedule

Wednesday 14. 09.

Defense Committee: Jan Hanousek (chair), Marek Kapička, Ctirad Slavík at room #320

9:30     Bakharev Konstantin: ICT Corporation within the Modern Market Economy: Benefits and Side Effects of Hosting "Silicon Valley”

           Chair: Sergey Slobodyan

           Opponent: Michal Kejak

11:00   Iankov Egor: Economic Growth in European Regions: Divergence within Convergence

           Chair: Byeongju Jeong

           Opponent: Veronika Selezneva

13:00   Solieva Viktoriya: Comparative Analysis of Economic Transformation or Republic of Uzbekistan and Central and Eastern Europe

           Chair: Daniel Münich

           Opponent: Tomáš Kučera

Iankov Egor: Economic Growth in European Regions: Divergence within Convergence

Abstract:

I study the convergence and divergence in the EU regions in 2000 – 2018. I use data on the GDP per capita and modeled real expenditures under EU support schemes of regions from the EU members at the NUTS2 level of disaggregation. I apply 𝛽-convergence model to this setting. I show that the overall dispersion of regions has increased since 2003 almost without interruptions. If I include country dummies, the variation of GDP per capita decreases on average in 2000 – 2010. This result does not fully agree with the regression analysis of compound growth rates and log initial GDP per capita. However, this discrepancy is explained by the entry of new
regions and the blending of particular groups of regions in 2018. I find that EU member countries diverge from each other, but regions within each country converge to the country mean. Further analysis shows that convergence is robust to the inclusion of regional characteristics and EU support. My results show that the EU Cohesion Policy is only partially successful in promoting convergence of the EU regions. 

Keywords: 𝛽-convergence, EU Regional Policy, Cohesion Policy, GDP per capita

Full Text: “Economic Growth in European Regions: Divergence within Convergence”