R15 - General Regional Economics: Econometric and Input-Output Models; Other ModelsReturn

The effects of the financial crisis, that started in 2008 and first emerged on the American housing market, have been experienced by many European economies. The purpose of this article is to attempt to measure and assess the sensitivity of convergence processes to crisis in European Union's regional economies taking into consideration their sectoral structure. Particular resistance to crisis is associated with the presence of "modern" sectors of the economy. The study covers the panel of the European Union NUTS-2 level regions in the period 2005-2011. In the analysis, the application of panel data allows for inclusion of the specific non-measurable aspects characteristic for particular regions and time.

The objective of the paper is to analyse and evaluate the impact of measures supporting job creation, within the Rural Development Programme of the Czech Republic for 2007-2013, on regional production, income and employment in the Vysočina region by using structural inputoutput analysis. The regional input-output model built on the example of the Vysočina region serves as a tool for the analysis. To perform the impact analysis a regional input-output table for the Vysočina region was constructed by using GRIT method. A part of the analysis is the identification of factors that influence the size of the impacts found. The main findings show that analysed measures have positive impact on regional economy of the Vysočina region, mainly in terms of impacts on production. However, final impacts on production, income and employment are very low. Impact analysis indicates that investment in tourism represents an important factor leading to the improvement of Vysočina region's economy.

This paper addresses the question of convergence in real wages across Romanian counties, while putting a spotlight on the recent economic crisis, which has hit hard the entire economy. Following the main methodological trends in the literature, convergence methods were applied using the traditional cross-section approach. The empirical analysis covering a 21-year period provided clear evidence in favour of ß-convergence, but indicated ?-divergence (Galton's fallacy). Wages' dispersion seems to rise during the economic crises and persists in the first stage of recovery as well. This finding provides support to Barro and Sala-i-Martin's theory on the temporary divergence effect induced by economic shocks.