Convergence in human capital is a key precondition to achieve income convergence in the European Union; however, so far research on this topic has nearly been absent. Our paper contributes to the literature by investigating the human capital convergence dynamics within the EU over the period...

Since the early 1990s, there have been larger and increasing labor productivity differences across industries in Japan. More specifically, a clear pattern of sigma and beta divergence across industries is observed. To shed light on these stylized facts, we first evaluate the input-output...

The cross-country convergence hypothesis is one of the central topics of long-run macroeconomics. This paper revisits this hypothesis in a context beyond GDP. It uses a novel welfare index that incorporates measures of consumption, leisure, life expectancy, and inequality. Based on a sample of...

Nighttime lights (NTL) data are widely recognized as a useful proxy for monitoring national, subnational, and supranational economic activity. These data offer advantages over traditional economic indicators such as GDP, including greater spatial granularity, timeliness, lower cost, and...

Economic historians and geographers have recognised a 'dualism' in the economic development of the UK - a divide between the northern and southern parts of the country - dating back over several centuries. The 'regional problem' in the UK has become increasingly difficult to define and...

The following paper examines the arguments about enlargement and cohesion with a summary of one of the preparatory studies undertaken for the Second Cohesion Report, as well as references to some of the Commission's own research. The paper then outlines some of the options for the future of EU...

Historically, cooperation across borders was an area of activity dominated by central government actors. However, in the EU some of the earliest institutionalised forms of territorial cooperation are based on bottom-up initiatives involving border municipalities. Current territorial cooperation...

This book brings together academics, members of European institutions, and regional and national level policymakers in order to assess the performance and direction of EU Cohesion policy against the background of the most significant reforms to the policy in a generation. Responding to past...