Economic convergence in the European Union at the regional level with particular attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic - a spatio-temporal approach

The study presents an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic convergence in the European Union (EU). It is widely known that every crisis can have a negative influence on the economic development of a country or region. This research analysed data for 233 EU regions on the NUTS-2 level in the years 2000-2020. To verify the occurrence of the convergence process, the spatio-temporal beta -convergence models for pooled time series and cross-sectional data (TSCS) were estimated. Expanding the convergence models with the dummy variables characterising two critical crises in the analysed period (the global financial crisis in 2007-2009 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020) allowed us to verify their impact on the regional convergence process in the EU. The main aim of this research is to assess the influence of presented crises on the economic convergence between EU regions. Because regions cooperate, the spatial element of the beta -convergence models was also included. The additional aspect of the study is the comparison of the differences in strength of the influence of the mentioned crises on economic convergence.