Convergence between the Baltic and the Nordic economies: Some reflections based on new data for the Baltic countries

Abstract

This short paper uses recent estimates of GDP per capita for the Baltic countries for the 1919-2020(22) period to test for convergence between the Baltic and the Nordic economies. Drawing from the methodology used in Bernard and Durlauf (1996) and Greasley and Oxley (1997), we utilise a time-series approach to test for bivariate convergence between the various Baltic and Nordic economies. We find some evidence of conditional convergence and catching up for the interwar period, 1919-1939 and the post-Soviet era 1993-2022, when for the communist growth period until 1988 we find no trace of convergence, when thereafter during the last years of communism, the Baltic economies went into a severe and devastating recession.