Abstract
The process of economic integration has triggered complex territorial dynamics in Europe. Basically, opposite dynamics appears to prevail for national and regional economies. The convergence process of the national economies of the EU coexists with a process of divergence between the regional European economies. The process of economic integration occurs in a context of increased importance of permanent innovation and of resulting increased territorialisation of activities where the metropolitan areas seem to embody the main issues at stake on European scene, particularly regarding its regional dimension. Different theoretical literatures have been developed, regarding both income convergence and regional specialisation in Europe. This paper is a first step towards a simultaneous resolution of the different dimensions of regional dynamics induced by the European integration: it focuses on the concept of structural convergence applied at the regional level and adopting the Wacziarg (2001) framework empirically establishes the existence of structural convergence of European metropolitan areas.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00168-007-0117-7
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Longhi, C., Musolesi, A. European cities in the process of economic integration: towards structural convergence. Ann Reg Sci 41, 333–351 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-006-0104-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-006-0104-4