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Structural Change Deconstructed: A Centre-Periphery Divide in Europe

Melles, Bertus Markus LU (2019) EKHS12 20191
Department of Economic History
Abstract
After more than a decade since the outbreak of the financial crisis, overall economic growth in the Eurozone is still disappointing. An increasing group of economists attributes the inadequate economic performance to large and deeply engrained differences between the productive structures of the Northern and Southern Eurozone. To find out whether there is reason to believe this, we apply the Economic Complexity Index to a variety of European countries and map their structural differences over time. The Economic Complexity Index is usually recognized by the disadvantage that it can only explain us something about the structural change of the production of goods in an economy. Given the particularly high importance of trade in services in... (More)
After more than a decade since the outbreak of the financial crisis, overall economic growth in the Eurozone is still disappointing. An increasing group of economists attributes the inadequate economic performance to large and deeply engrained differences between the productive structures of the Northern and Southern Eurozone. To find out whether there is reason to believe this, we apply the Economic Complexity Index to a variety of European countries and map their structural differences over time. The Economic Complexity Index is usually recognized by the disadvantage that it can only explain us something about the structural change of the production of goods in an economy. Given the particularly high importance of trade in services in the Eurozone, this is a considerable disadvantage. Hence, we construct a new trade database that contains data for both goods and services. This allows us to derive a truly representative measurement of the productive structure complexity of the European countries. We conclude that there are indeed large and increasing structural differences between the Southern and the Northern Eurozone. (Less)
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author
Melles, Bertus Markus LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHS12 20191
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Centre-Periphery Eurozone, Structural Asymmetries, Services Economic Complexity Index
language
English
id
8992888
date added to LUP
2019-09-10 11:11:11
date last changed
2019-09-10 11:11:11
@misc{8992888,
  abstract     = {{After more than a decade since the outbreak of the financial crisis, overall economic growth in the Eurozone is still disappointing. An increasing group of economists attributes the inadequate economic performance to large and deeply engrained differences between the productive structures of the Northern and Southern Eurozone. To find out whether there is reason to believe this, we apply the Economic Complexity Index to a variety of European countries and map their structural differences over time. The Economic Complexity Index is usually recognized by the disadvantage that it can only explain us something about the structural change of the production of goods in an economy. Given the particularly high importance of trade in services in the Eurozone, this is a considerable disadvantage. Hence, we construct a new trade database that contains data for both goods and services. This allows us to derive a truly representative measurement of the productive structure complexity of the European countries. We conclude that there are indeed large and increasing structural differences between the Southern and the Northern Eurozone.}},
  author       = {{Melles, Bertus Markus}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Structural Change Deconstructed: A Centre-Periphery Divide in Europe}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}