Does Maritime Transport Network Converge? Evidence From EU Countries

The concept of convergence is an important issue that has gained a wide place in the economics literature. The convergence of economies is likely to have an impact on the transportation sector as well, since it is the most important supporter of economic activities, and it is directly affected by economic indicators due to its derived demand structure. However, the possible reflections of economic convergence in the transportation sector have not received sufficient attention in the literature. In this study, we investigated this issue in the European Union (EU) countries, where economic convergence is implemented as a union policy and the existence of convergence is empirically supported in many studies. We select Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI) as a variable, which indicates the countries’ level of connectivity in the liner transportation network mostly used to transport intermediate and finished goods. We have determined that there is a convergence in EU countries in terms of maritime transportation network. This result shows that economic integration leads to improvements not only in the incomes of poorer countries but also in their transportation networks.