Nominal Convergence in the New EU Member States: Comparative Analysis

The article deals with nominal convergence in the new member states of the European Union. Nominal convergence is quite frequent topic, however, there is no uniform definition and therefore, its development can be researched through many approaches. Although the Maastricht Criteria express the official attitude of the European Union to nominal convergence, a large number of economists research this economic phenomenon through price levels in a narrow concept or through all nominal variables in a broader concept. The article analyses nominal convergence in the European Union in a narrow concept through researching comparative price levels. It focuses on ten new member states that joined the EU in 2004. Within this group of states, seven of them have already accepted the euro and are members of the eurozone, while the rest is still using their own national currencies. The aim of the article is to find out whether there is a different development of the nominal convergence in states using euro compared to development in states using their own currencies. The development of comparative price levels, the main indicator of the nominal convergence in a narrow concept, is analysed based on data from 2006 to 2017 through regression analysis and a coefficient of variation.