The homogeneity of two sets of European economies

Abstract

It is generally accepted that an economy may be represented by a set of economic parameters. The normalised versions of these parameters are here assumed as coordinates in a Cartesian space. The homogeneity of a set of economies is then defined as the inverse of the sum of the distances of each economy from the others of the set (M. Caputo, Meccanica, 2014). The approach is applied to 2 sets of economies of the EU countries: 5 Western supposedly with evolved economies and 5 Eastern supposedly aiming to a better economic condition and using sets of 12 and 14 parameters respectively. It is found that, in the period 2000-2010, the homogeneity of both sets oscillates in time and that it does not seem that the 2 sets evolve to a common homogeneity. This is confirmed by the same type of analysis applied to the set of the 5 Western EU economies using 29 economic parameters of the year 2012 (M. Caputo, Meccanica, 2014) finding that the homogeneity of this set keeps oscillating.