EUROPEAN PATTERNS OF UNEMPLOYMENT: A Spatial Analysis of Regional Unemployment in Europe

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to investigate the structural evolution and spatial pattern of regional unemployment rates in the EU for the period 1999-2009. Several previous studies have found large disparities across Europe’s regions, contrary to what neoclassic theory predict would be the effect of regional integration. Moreover, some literature finds that these differences seem to increase over time – polarizing into high- and low-unemployment clusters. We employ entropy indices to measure the dispersion of unemployment across a panel of EU-regions over the period 1999-2009, a period so far unexplored in this respect. Results indicate that disparities are mainly persistent for this period. However, results differ if we look at specific groups of EU Member States. The older members show much more persistence than the newer members, who seem to have in some cases lessen both regional unemployment and unemployment disparities over the period. We discuss the implication of regional integration and the emergence of regional unemployment, contrasting more traditional theoretical approaches with that of New Economic Geography, and try to give some tentative answers to why, in some cases, disparities persist and why not in other cases.