The Convergence Process and the Effects of the Economic Crisis in Central-Eastern Europe

• Main Author: DÓRA SZENDI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cluj University Press 2013-01-01
• Series: Romanian Review of Regional Studies
• Subjects: Convergence club; Economic crisis; Central-Eastern Europe; Williamson hypothesis
• Online Access: http://rrrs.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/arhive/Artpdf/v9n12013/RRRS901201308.pdf

The economic convergence and the effects of the economic crisis is a very popular research question. In this paper I propose to examine the convergence process in Central and Eastern Europe by testing the Williamson hypothesis form a multiscalar perspective: at national and at different regional levels as well. By using time series for the GDP per capita, I will try to answer three basic issues: firstly, the trends in convergence/divergence in Central and Eastern Europe, secondly, which convergence clubs have evolved in the analysed space, and, finally, the effects of the financial and economic crisis on the convergence process.