Journal of Policy Modeling 33 (2011) 889–900 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com EU regional convergence and policy: Does the concept of region matter? Adolfo Maza ∗ , José Villaverde University of Cantabria, Department of Economics, Av. Los Castros, s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain Received 1 November 2010; received in revised form 1 February 2011; accepted 1 March 2011 Available online 1 April 2011 Abstract Regional convergence has become a heated topic in the last decades. To address it, most papers define regions on the base of normative/administrative criteria, although some consider that it could lead to mis- leading conclusions. In view of that, this article explores, over the period 1995–2006, the per capita income distribution of two sets of European regions: administrative (NUTS2) and functional (Metropolitan) regions. From a methodological point of view, a distribution dynamics approach – examining the external shape and movements within these distributions – is applied to analyse the issue of convergence. The study does reveal the presence of a process of convergence across both types of regions; however, this seems to be more rapid with Metropolitan than NUTS2 regions, which prompt us to proposing some relative major changes in the EU regional policy. © 2011 Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: C14; E24; R11 Keywords: Administrative regions; Functional regions; Convergence; Distribution dynamics; Income 1. Introduction The study of regional disparities has been at the forefront of the economic analysis in the last two to three decades, especially in the case of the European Union, where the interest has been mainly triggered by concerns about the ongoing process of economic integration. How- ever, which concept of region should be used for both research and policy-making purposes is ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 942 201652; fax: +34 942 201603. E-mail addresses: mazaaj@unican.es, adolfo.maza@unican.es (A. Maza). 0161-8938/$ – see front matter © 2011 Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpolmod.2011.03.007