Economic convergence of the post-Soviet countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyse economic convergence of GDP per capita in the post-Soviet countries (except the Baltic States). The analysis has been conducted for the time period between 1995 and 2016 also divided into sub periods. These were selected not only according to the global economic situation but also Russian economic situation. Two types of convergence are calculated - beta that is based on the neoclassical growth theory, and sigma convergence. Panel data were used to estimate the parameters of the model. The method used was LS. All parameters are statistically significant. It can be stated that both sigma and beta convergence have occurred over the monitored period. However, the same is not true for different sub periods. Beta convergence that is a necessary condition for the existence of sigma convergence did not occur during the period 2000-2006 or 2006-2009. Due to this fact, economic convergence between the monitored countries for the given period of time cannot be discussed. The question that should be asked is whether convergence is also present in the sub groups of the post-Soviet countries.