Assessing regional convergence of the size of middle classes in Euro-Mediterranean countries Bárcena-Martín, Elena Melchor Ferrer, Elías Pérez-Moreno, Salvador Euro-Mediterranean countries Middle-income class Lower- and upper-middle classes Regional convergence Economic cycle Spatial spillovers Historically, Euro-Mediterranean European countries have presented high levels of intra- and interregional socio-economic inequalities and are regular recipients of financial support under European Union Cohesion Policy. This paper provides evidence of regional convergence in the size of lower- and upper-middle-income classes across regions of France, Greece, Italy and Spain for the period 2004-17. Our results also reveal that changes in class size in neighbouring regions are associated with changes in the same direction in the lower- and upper-middle classes of the region of interest. As regards growth of class size in neighbouring regions, the convergence process is offset in both middle-income groups, but only partially for the upper-middle class. Furthermore, the economic cycle affects the process of regional convergence in the size of the middle class, although the effects are non-homogeneous for both middle-class groups. While increases or decreases in gross domestic product (GDP) do not seem to be closely related to upper-middle-class size, relatively persistent decreases rather than increases in GDP over time tend to be more linked to lower-middle-class size. These findings point to significant differences in the convergence dynamics between lower- and upper-middle classes, with the former being more sensitive to both neighbouring regions and the business cycle. 2023-07-27T11:28:58Z 2023-07-27T11:28:58Z 2023-07-13 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Elena Bárcena-Martín, Elías Melchor-Ferrer & Salvador Pérez-Moreno (2023). Assessing regional convergence of the size of middle classes in Euro-Mediterranean countries, Regional Studies, Regional Science, 10:1, 659-675. [DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2023.2229421] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/84057 10.1080/21681376.2023.2229421 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional Taylor & Francis