Employment, Population and Regional Development in Western and Central Europe. Econometric Models and Challenges of EU Enlargement

We analyse the relationships between employment, population and regional development in Europe with a cross section sample, for year 2000, of 151 regions belonging to the 25 countries of EU after Enlargement of year 2004. Regional disparities in EU are higher than in the US, while the rate of employment, wages and income per inhabitant are lower in Europe. We analyse the main factors which explain those differences and estimate an econometric model for Western and Central European regions which shows the positive effect of real value added on employment and population. Finally we suggest to foster economic policies focused to increase the rates of employment and income per inhabitant in EU countries and regions.