Abstract
This paper empirically explores the issue of income convergence of the Balkan economies with the European Union’s-15 average (EU-15) over the period 1989–2009. The adopted econometric methodology has been suggested by Nahar and Inder (2002) and is considered more efficient in detecting possible catching up effects compared to the relevant conventional methods. The findings of this paper point out the existence of dissimilarities among the examined Balkan economies in the process to catch up with the EU-15. In particular, the results support income convergence with the EU-15 only for Greece and Slovenia.
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Notes
- 1.
A union of the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe.
- 2.
It has to be mentioned that in 1974 Greece retired its military participation to NATO in order to protest against the Turkish advance in Cyprus and rejoined in 1980.
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Tsanana, E., Katrakilidis, C., Pantelidis, P. (2013). Balkan Area and EU-15: An Empirical Investigation of Income Convergence. In: Karasavvoglou, A., Polychronidou, P. (eds) Balkan and Eastern European Countries in the Midst of the Global Economic Crisis. Contributions to Economics. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2873-3_2
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