Regional infrastructure and convergence: growth implications in a spatial framework

In this paper we contribute to the debate on convergence, by presenting an overview of the catch up process of the EU regions between 1995 and 2006, focusing on both absolute and conditional β convergence. Our focus is on the role of infrastructure stock in shaping the growth and convergence process between EU regions and to what extent the spatial dimension of the data affects results. We also explicitly examine the link between infrastructure evolution and regional economic growth with a spatial panel data approach. Our results confirm an ongoing convergence process at the EU regional level, and assess the important role of transport and telecommunication infrastructure, with traditional and spatial estimation techniques. We also confirm, in a panel setting, the strong positive correlation between transport and TLC indicators and GDP growth at the regional level.