GDP and beyond: Prosperity convergence in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe

Abstract

After Second World War (WWII) a true evolution in understanding of economic development happened, which affected the ways of measuring prosperity, i.e. perceiving changes in people’s welfare. Numerous indicators have been created, which go ‘beyond GDP’ and cover different aspects of development and well-being. The aim of this paper is to analyse prosperity convergence in 32 European countries with a composite indicator – Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI). LPI is more complete than other indicators used in convergence analysis and reflects multidimensional nature of modern development and prosperity. Our research of absolute beta convergence is based on cross-sectional and panel data. Results indicate the existence of convergence in the overall index and its constitutive parts – dimensions and pillars, with different convergence speed regarding LPI and its segments for the total sample of countries, as well as for the countries of Eastern and Western Europe.