A long-run perspective on Latvian regional gross domestic product inequality, 1925–2016

Ola Honningdal Grytten, Zenonas Norkus (), Jurgita Markevičiūtė and Jānis Šiliņš
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Ola Honningdal Grytten: Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics NHH, Bergen, Norway
Zenonas Norkus: Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Jurgita Markevičiūtė: Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Jānis Šiliņš: Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Valmiera, Latvia

Baltic Journal of Economics, 2024, vol. 24, issue 1, 88-115

Abstract: This paper for the first time calculates the historical regional GDP (rGDP) for an Eastern European country by using the methodology of Frank Geary and Tom Stark [2002. Examining Ireland's post-famine economic growth performance. The Economic Journal, 112(482):919–935]. The estimates cover the period 1925–1935 and are made for the historical Latvian regions Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale, Latgale, and Riga as well as within the contemporary NUTS3 units. The results are compared with the GDP disparity of the NUTS3 regions of the restored independent Latvia (2001–2016). The main findings are that the sigma divergence remained stable. Direct comparisons of regional growth rates indicate that economically more advanced regions were more sensitive to business cycles than less advanced regions. Hence, sigma divergence seems to prevail in times of high growth and convergence in times of low growth.

Keywords: Regional gross domestic product; cross-regional economic inequality; interwar Latvia; restored independent Latvia; sigma convergence; beta convergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 N94 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bic:journl:v:24:y:2024:i:1:p:88-115

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