Regional economic convergence in federation contexts: a comparative analysis of Brazil and the European Union

This article examines regional economic convergence in two federal contexts: Brazil and the European Union. Despite many differences, in the last decades these two economies have shown irregular economic growth and been facing economic inequalities, launching public policies to reduce them. We analyse the tendencies of regional convergence within these economies between 2002 and 2019, focusing on sigma-convergence, absolute convergence, convergence clubs and the transitional behaviour of club members. The results show that in both cases convergence occurs, but at a slow rhythm, especially in the European Union.