Convergence in transportation measures across the EU-15

Abstract

This is the first study in the literature to investigate the convergence in transportation measures. To this end, we conjectured a transportation convergence equation and tested it via Difference GMM and System GMM methods, using 4-year span panel data from 15 European Union countries (EU-15) for the period 1970-2013. The results provide strong evidence for the existence of unconditional convergence among the EU-15 countries in two transportation measures, namely, inland freight transportation per capita, and inland passenger transportation per capita. The estimates show that the convergence is even stronger when control variables are used. We conclude that the income convergence of EU-15 in the process of economic integration is also strongly evident in the transportation sector.