Core-Periphery Patterns across the European Union: Case Studies and Lessons from Eastern and Southern Europe

The EMU debt crisis that emerged in 2010 has identified a group of Southern countries, especially Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, as low performers exhibiting several serious macroeconomic imbalances, and it has also highlighted that EU integration experienced by Eastern European countries (especially the latter-comers to EU) was not accompanied by a rapid process of real convergence. Since then, the research about the effects of peripherality have regained a renewed interest to ultimately ground better regional policy recommendations aimed at achieving a sustained reduction of income per capita disparities across EU regions.  In this new work, Pascariu and Duarte, along with an international group of acclaimed scholars, delve into key challenges currently facing the European Union. They investigate this central question: does the domestic market system lead to the development of a center-periphery model, by highlight gaps, or does it support the convergence process? Analyzing the effects of peripherality across the EU regions, a two-fold approach is used to deliver policy recommendations grounded in economic theory, and of interest to other countries and regions facing a process of integration.

Table of Contents:
PART I. INTEGRATION, GROWTH, CONVERGENCE. SOUTHERN VERSUS EASTERN PERIPHERALITY 1. Introduction: Core-periphery Patterns in the Development of EU’s Regions. Eastern vs. Southern Peripherality  2. The Dynamics of the EU Core-Periphery Division: Eastern vs. Southern Periphery – a Comparative Analysis from a New Economic Geography Perspective  3. Integration, Growth and Core-Periphery Pattern in EU’s Economy. Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidences   PART II. STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN SOUTHERN AND EASTERN ENLARGEMENTS   4. EU Integration and the Centre Periphery Divide: Growth and Structural Change in Southern and Eastern European Countries  5. Dutch Disease in Central and Eastern European Countries  6. Structural Change, Inequality and Economic Growth: Evidence from a Panel of Central and Eastern European Countries  PART III. CORE-PERIPHERY PARTICULARITIES IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE: CASE STUDIES   7. Clusters of Rural European Regions. An Approach to Show the Multi-Dimensional Character of Core-Peripheral Patterns  8. Is Eastern Europe Following the Same Transition Model as the South? A Regional Analysis of the Main Migration Transition Drivers  9. Competitiveness of Cities and their Regions in Poland – Changes in the Light of the Growth Pole Concept  PART IV. CORE PERIPHERY PATTERNS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS. SECTORAL ISSUES  10. Fiscal Decentralisation and Self-Government Practices: Southern vs. Eastern Periphery of the European Union  11. Continuity versus Discontinuity in the 2014-2020 EU Cohesion Policy   12. Beyond the Core-periphery Model: Policies for Development in a Multi-dimensional Space  Index terms

Review :
Scholars of economics, politics, and environmental science explore eastern versus southern peripherality as an important issue for the European Union and European Monetary Union. They cover integration, growth, convergence: southern versus eastern peripherality; structural transformations in southern and eastern enlargements; core-periphery particularities in eastern and southern Europe: case studies; and core-periphery patterns and policy implications: sectoral issues. Among specific topics are a comparative analysis from a new economic geography perspective, Dutch disease in central and eastern European counties, clusters of rural European regions: an approach to show the multi-dimensional character of core-periphery patterns, and beyond the core-periphery model: policies for development in a multi-dimensional space.