CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Szörfi, Béla |
|---|---|
| Title | Development and Regional Disparities. Testing the Williamson curve hypothesis in the European Union |
| Summary | The paper examines the relationship between within-country regional disparities and the development of nations in the enlarged European Union. Using panel data methods, I find evidence on the Williamson curve hypothesis which says that disparities are lower at early stages of development, peak at middle-income stages, but diminish again as a country becomes rich. However, which is more important, I point out that there are considerable factors which influence disparities more than national income. Among these country-specific factors, (earlier) EU-membership has an outstanding role, being responsible for more than half of the differences in regional disparities between the member states. I identify factors which are connected to EU-membership and are candidates of possible driving forces behind disparities: the transition in the new member states, the Economic and Monetary Union, the resources of the Structural and Cohesion Funds and the effective institutions. |
| Supervisor | Konya, Istvan |
| Department | Economics MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/c05szb01.pdf |
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