Inequality in Europe: the role of EU enlargement

Jesper Roine () and Svante Strömberg ()
Additional contact information
Jesper Roine: Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics
Svante Strömberg: Uppsala University, Department of Economics

International Tax and Public Finance, 2025, vol. 32, issue 6, No 8, 1865-1904

Abstract: Abstract We study income inequality in the European Union (EU) following its 2004 enlargement. Using data from the World Inequality Database, we find convergence not only in cross-country GDP per capita but also across the entire income distribution. Despite rising inequality within some countries, strong income growth also for the poor in Eastern Europe has decreased inequality in the EU as a whole. In contrast, older member states exhibit divergent income trends with stagnation among lower-income groups and growth concentrated at the top. This has systematically shifted the EU-wide income ranking, with many income groups in pre-2004 EU countries—particularly in Southern Europe—falling in rank while most income groups in the new member states have moved up in rank. These findings may be important to understand shifts in attitudes toward the EU and offer insights relevant for future EU enlargements, in particular the accession of countries such as Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.

Keywords: Income inequality; European Union (EU) enlargement; Economic convergence; Income distribution dynamics; Within‑ versus between‑country inequality; Transition economies; F15; O15; P27; D31; J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10797-025-09897-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:32:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10797-025-09897-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/10797/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10797-025-09897-6

Access Statistics for this article

International Tax and Public Finance is currently edited by Ronald B. Davies and Kimberly Scharf

More articles in International Tax and Public Finance from Springer, International Institute of Public Finance Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().