Regional Integration and Economic Convergence in the Post-Soviet Space: Experience of the Decade of Growth

Abstract:
This article examines the dynamics of regional integration and economic convergence in the post-Soviet world during the period 1999–2008, both considered as a whole and on the level of individual country groups. While the trade integration experienced a negative trend, at the same time one can observe an unprecedented expansion of labour migration – thus suggesting that integration of factor flows can outperform integration of markets for goods and services, at least in this specific case. Clustering processes of the post-Soviet states for economic convergence and for economic integration seem to be unaffected by each other.