61-90

• Kafousias, Dionysis, S.

Different growth achievement among countries or regions still nowadays calls for further investigation on the ground of economic growth. Following the neoclassical prediction of convergence, on the one hand, and the opposite view of endogenous and new geography theories, predicting the widening of economic disparities, on the other hand, a vast number of empirical studies are favouring either the former or the latter aspect. Since the late 1970s there has been a fundamental change in economic policy embarking from the industrialised economies, then in developing countries and finally spotted in the former socialist economies. The backbone of this economic revolution has been the minimal role for the state, the greater role attributed to the market forces, and the increased openness and integration into the world economy. To some extent, technological discrepancies between advanced and lagging economies have already eroded longstanding geographical and economic obstacles to cross-border transactions, whereas free trade and human capital have been regarded as the new impetus for development and growth. For many economists and historians, the reduction of trade barriers in the post-war world ushered in a new era of globalisation through economic openness which might have been the cornerstone of closing the economic gap between countries and the ensuing convergence issue (O’Rourke & Williamson 1999). Interregional and intraregional differences, according to the neoclassical doctrine, along with innovations and the abundance of human capital, according to endogenous tenet, are expected to generate faster economic growth, particularly for lagging countries or regions, leading to lagging economies’ catch up and convergence of incomes worldwide. The evolution of Greek (NUTS-3) economic discrepancies and the neoclassical convergence hypothesis over the period 1995-2005 is sought. A set of selected dispersion measures along with OLS and panel data regressions concerning with the neoclassical prediction of unconditional β-convergence for this purpose are applied. The findings do not favour convergence in per capita GDP.

• Economics and Business

• Οικονομία

Convergence, Spatial Autocorrelation, Coefficient of Variation, σ-, β-convergence, Gini, Theil, Convergence Clubs, Steady State, Panel.

JEL classification: C21, C23, R11