Economic Convergence And Divergence In Europe

Recoge : 1. Introductory session. - 2. Past convergence within the European Union. - 3. Accesion countries : achievements in real convergence. - 4. Accesion countries : how to balance real and nominal convergence challenges for monetary and exchange rate policy. - 5. Does the financial sector contribute to real growth? - 6. Is there somebody left out in the cold? prospects of CEE countries other than current accesion countries. - 7. Policy challenges within the (enlarged) EU : how to foster economic convergence?

This book offers a unique picture of education and training in the EU between the early 1980s and the late 1990s. It synthesizes a wealth of research, policy documents and original data from the fifteen Member States and from the European Commission. The advent of the Single Market and of the euro have focused attention on economic integration in Europe; while discussions of globalization also emphasize common trends and economic convergence. Convergence and Divergence in European Education and Training Systems demonstrates that, while European education and training systems are responding to powerful general trends, they remain highly distinctive, with no obvious movement towards a single common pattern.

This new monograph provides a stimulating new take on hotly contested topics in world modernization and the globalizing economy. It begins by situating what is called the Great Divergence--the social/technological revolution that led European nations to outpace the early dominance of Asia--in historical context over centuries. This is contrasted with an equally powerful Great Convergence, the recent economic and technological expansion taking place in Third World nations and characterized by narrowing inequity among nations. They are seen here as two phases of an inevitable global process, centuries in the making, with the potential for both positive and negative results. This sophisticated presentation examines: Why the developing world is growing more rapidly than the developed world. How this development began occurring under the Western world's radar. How former colonies of major powers grew to drive the world's economy. Why so many Western economists have been slow to recognize the Great Convergence. The increasing risk of geopolitical instability. Why the world is likely to find itself without an absolute leader after the end of the American hegemony A work of rare scope, Great Divergence and Great Convergence gives sociologists, global economists, demographers, and global historians a deeper understanding of the broader movement of social and economic history, combined with a long view of history as it is currently being made; it also offers some thrilling forecasts for global development in the forthcoming decades.

This book aims to answer a number of important questions. To what extent have European countries converged or diverged with EU-wide economic and social indicators over the past 20 years? What have been the drivers of convergence? Why do some countries lag behind, while others experience continuous upward convergence? Why are these trajectories not always linear? Particular attention is paid to the role of institutions, actors and industrial relations – focusing on the resources and strategies of governments, employers and trade unions – in nudging EU countries onto an upward convergence path.

Europe Under Stress: Convergence and Divergence in the European Community is the second of two volumes which flow from a Chatham House project on the political implications of economic divergence in the European Community, funded by the Social Science Research Council. This second volume offers an interpretation of the problems that divergence poses for the European Community in a number of key sectors, from the perspective of a political economist. This book begins with a discussion of the concepts of convergence and divergence followed by an explanation of the methodology adopted in this book. The remaining chapters are organized into two parts. The chapters in Part I examine the attitudes of the major EEC member states to the convergence/divergence issue and what the terms mean for each of them. This part also attempts to relate these positions to the concerns and interests of the countries involved. The chapters in Part II analyze the impact of economic divergence on community policies.

Written by an economist who is spezialized in growth theory and also an expert on European Integration, the book looks at economic growth of EU regions from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. It settles the issue in the context of EU integration and the EU ́s cohesion problem and provides systematic, analytical growth theory arguments with respect to EU regional development. This approach differs from the common view of the literature, which stresses regional development theories and regional policies when looking at EU regional problems. The volume provides unique, rich empirical evidence of European regional problems and growth patterns and investigates growth and convergence of EU regions with the latest econometric panel data methods. It offers new insights both for growth researchers and regional economists interested in developments in the European Union.

Europe is facing a political crisis because it has not solved a double dilemma. The first one is institutional and concerns the frontiers of the Union and thus the number of regions. The second one is economic. This book finds the coexistence of national convergence and regional divergence for western countries and converse for the Eastern ones.

This book analyses EU regional policy and its co-ordination with other European and national public policies, namely investment grants, research and development policy and transport policy. The analysis identifies shortcomings within EU regional policy as well as co-ordination, problems with other public policies.