Abstract
Convergence has been a popular theme in applied economics since the seminal papers of Barro (1991) and Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1992). The very notion of convergence quickly becomes problematic from an academic viewpoint however when we try and formalise a framework to think about these issues. In the light of the abundance of available convergence concepts, it would be useful to have a more universal framework that encompassed existing concepts as special cases. Moreover, much of the convergence literature has treated the issue as a zero-one outcome. We argue that it is more sensible and useful for policy decision makers and academic researchers to consider also ongoing convergence over time. Assessing the progress of ongoing convergence is one interesting and important means of evaluating whether the Eastern European New Member Countries (NMC) of the European Union (EU) are getting closer to being deemed “ready” to join the European Monetary Union (EMU), that is, fulfilling the Maastricht convergence criteria.
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Notes
- 1.
In the following, we will draw on our earlier work in Becker and Hall (2009).
- 2.
These are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
- 3.
These are Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
- 4.
Slovenia joined EMU in January 2007 and Cyprus, Malta and Slovakia joined after the end of our sample period—Cyprus and Malta joined in January 2008, and Slovakia joined in January 2009. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in January 2007. We intended to include Croatia and Macedonia in our sample of candidate countries, but HCPI data for these two countries are not available from Eurostat.
- 5.
We are presenting a selection of sub-periods; full results are available upon request.
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Becker, B., Hall, S.G. (2013). Inflation Convergence in Europe. In: Carayannis, E., Korres, G. (eds) European Socio-Economic Integration. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, vol 28. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5254-6_1
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