Ekonomický růst a reálná konvergence vybraných zemí

Income inequalities and differences in living standards between countries, especially between developed and developing countries, are really striking. Recent history has shown us that, although in the past some countries had much lower output than others, they were able to achieve similar economic levels through higher rates of economic growth. Therefore, economists began to address the issues of economic growth and real economic convergence in the 1950s. The following thesis describes and analyses one of the basic models of economic growth (and its extension) – The Solow model. This model seeks to clarify and explain economic growth through the accumulation of factors of production and technology. An interesting finding, however, is that in the very long run, the differences in the growth rates of per capita incomes are given only by the differences in the growth rates of "technology". One of the most important aspects of The Solow model is the implied real economic convergence. However, the model assumes only conditional convergence, not absolute. The Solow model is a very suitable candidate for the analysis of differences in the outputs of individual countries of the European Integration. In some cases, the model can help us explain up to 94 % of the variability of the dependant variable. In addition, the existence of both conditional and absolute real convergence is confirmed in the European Union. Moreover, the year 2004, in which the integration relationship between European states was strengthened, really marked a structural breakthrough for the speed of (absolute) convergence of the states of the European Union. The EU enlargement was important for real convergence and accelerated it.