Price convergence after the Eastern enlargement of the EU: evidence from retail food prices

摘要

Using detailed micro data on European retail food prices for EU15 and all eight Central and Eastern European accession countries, we analyse price convergence within the European Union after the enlargement shock in 2004. Testing for sigma-convergence, we find a strong price convergence within EU23, which is mainly explained by convergence between and not within the two subgroups of the old and the new member states.