One of the most striking developments in European political economy over the last years has been the rediscovery of its ‘periphery’ (or actually its different ‘peripheries’). References to the EU or Eurozone periphery have been extensively made ever since the financial crash of 2008, particularly in relation to the failures of the so-called PIGS. Yet this analysis has been rarely based on rigorous, systematic research. This paper seeks to fill this gap. Drawing on core-periphery arguments, it explains the specific pathways to crisis in the original ‘Cohesion Four’ EU countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain). We suggest that the literature on Europeanization and policy convergence should pay more attention to core-periphery dynamics in the European economic space
