Regional convergence from local isolated actions : I historical outcomes

This paper documents the dynamics of growth and convergence across regions in the Cohesion countries, comparing them to patterns across countries in the world, regions in Europe and more broadly, and regions in non-Cohesion EU member states. Among the Cohesion economies, Spain and Portugal have, in aggregate, grown fastest, and with greatest increase in regional inequalities. Their dynamic tendencies, if unchecked, will magnify what has occurred over the 1980s. By contrast, Greece shows the opposite: its aggregate growth has been slowest; its regional inequalities, smallest; and further tendency towards increasing equality, greatest. Increase in disparity between rich and poor across either countries in the world or broader regional aggregates in Europe as a whole.