European regional convergence revisited: the role of intangible assets

The contributions evaluating convergence across European regions are now numerous and take a wide variety of approaches. However, evidence for the most recent years is still scant, and studies considering the role of intangible assets in the enlarged European Union are virtually nonexistent. This article focuses on the convergence patterns of income per capita in 260 European regions during the period 2000–2011. Following the distribution dynamics approach, the role of a set of intangible assets is considered by introducing several conditioning schemes. In line with previous contributions the results suggest that the distribution of income is bimodal. The regional stocks of the different intangible assets considered have some power for explaining convergence tendencies in the studied period.I am grateful to Emili Tortosa-Ausina and Rafael Boix Doménech for their helpful comments and support with the methodological part. Two anonymous referees and the editor, Janet E. Kohlhase, are also acknowledged for helpful suggestions. The financial support of the Spanish Government (ECO2011-27227 and ECO2014/55221-P) as well as the Generalitat Valenciana (VALi+d ACIF 2080/2011 and PROMETEO II/2014/053) is also gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies