Socio-Economic Gaps Within the EU: a Comparison (European Union‪)‬

Abstract This research investigates socio-economic gaps between countries of the European Union (EU). The countries, for comparison purposes, are grouped into five sets to find out if the different groupings differ in means and variances. The overall conclusion is that the 15 core combinations outperform the rest when comparisons are made on the basis of 45 socio-economic variables. However, the newly added countries in the enlargement appear to be fairly homogeneous when compared in accordance with the 45 variables. Of special interest is whether the inclusion of Turkey among the newly admitted would have changed the pattern of homogeneity among them. The answer to this question is a guarded yes. Keywords European union * EU enlargement * Socio-economic indicators * Convergence