The analysis of economic convergence among countries or regions is usually based on distribution means comparisons of some variables such as GDP or disposable income, expressed in per capita terms. However, these studies, related to the economic welfare level, offer only a partial approach to the convergence phenomenon because the disparities within regions or countries are not considered. The methodology used in this paper allows us to complement the traditional approach considering efficiency and equity criteria in each region simultaneously. The aim of this paper is to test first and second stochastic dominance in order to analyze the convergence among Spanish regions using data from the Household Expenditure Survey of 1990-91 and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) of 2003.

Key words: convergence, welfare, stochastic dominance.
JEL classification: R13, D31, I31.