Intraregional inequalities in Serbia - testing the club convergence

Abstract

Not only are all the regions in Serbia underdeveloped in comparison to EU-28 average, but there are also relatively large regional disparities in our country. Nevertheless, the largest part of the uneven spatial development in Serbia lies in pronounced and growing inequalities within the regions ? intraregional disparities are greater than the interregional ones. This paper aims to investigate the existence of club convergence on NUTS 3 level in Serbia. While a common approach is based on a priori dividing units of observation into individual groups based on some of their particular characteristics, we use a method that allows identification of clusters of convergence by using an algorithm that is data-driven and thereby avoids a priori classification of the data into subgroups. We use data on GVA per capita for NUTS 3 level in Serbia, for the period 2001-2016. Our results show that there are three convergence clubs in Serbia, while two districts - Belgrade district and South Backa district show no signs of convergence with any of the other clubs or between themselves.