Financial centres' competitiveness and economic convergence: Evidence from the European Union regions
研究了23个欧盟成员国在金融危机期间金融中心竞争力差距对区域经济收敛的影响，发现大型国际金融中心在危机高峰期竞争力呈发散趋势，而金融中心收敛能缩小区域经济不平等，但竞争力提升会扩大国家内部不平等。
This study analyses the gaps in financial centres' competitiveness and their impact on regional economic convergence in 23 European Union Member States during the period of the Global Financial Crisis. In particular, we explore the economic convergence and divergence patterns among regions from two different perspectives across the selected European Union Member States and within each country. From a methodological viewpoint, we apply a fully non-parametric framework to the club convergence model and address the endogeneity problem between financial centres' competitiveness and regional economic convergence. Our results show that the large and internationally-oriented financial centres experienced a diverging trend in terms of the competitiveness of financial centres' business environment during the peak of the crisis. We also find evidence that the convergence of financial centres reduces regional economic inequalities between the regions where financial centres are located. In contrast, the increase in the competitiveness of financial centres only serves to widen existing inequalities at the national level. Finally, we examine and discuss the impact of competitiveness drivers of financial centres on the convergence pattern of European Union regions.