de la Fuente, Angel --- "Regional convergence in Spain, 1965Â…95" [2003] ELECD 10; in Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter (eds), "Economic Convergence and Divergence in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: Economic Convergence and Divergence in Europe

Editor(s): Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843762416

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Regional convergence in Spain, 1965Â…95

Author(s): de la Fuente, Angel

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

4. Regional convergence in Spain,
1965­95
Angel de la Fuente

4.1. INTRODUCTION1

In this chapter I review the process of regional convergence in Spain over
the last two decades and explore the forces driving this process, with special
reference to the impact of regional policies and aggregate growth perfor-
mance. To do this, I will rely on a standard measure of convergence (the
rate of unconditional -convergence)2 and use a technique that allows me
to decompose this measure into the sum of a series of partial convergence
coefficients that capture the contribution of different variables of interest
to the reduction of regional disparities. In this manner, we can trace back
the observed reduction of inequality to the evolution of the different com-
ponents of income per capita and isolate the effects of employment-related
variables and the accumulation of productive factors, among other things.
The chapter is organized as follows. In Section 4.2 I briefly review Spain's
performance over the period 1965­95 in terms of growth, employment
creation and regional convergence. In Section 4.3 I present and discuss the
results of the decomposition of the rate of regional convergence in income
per capita for each of the three decades in the sample period. One clear
implication of the results is that the poor employment performance of the
less advanced regions has been a major factor in the convergence slowdown
we observe in Spain during this period. Section 4.4 concludes with an
exploration ...