Suchergebnisse

This article examines the hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between specialisation in production and the symmetry of cyclical fluctuations in the regions of Europe. In so doing, an index of asymmetries for the cyclical fluctuations of per capita GDP in the regions of Europe is constructed and various geographical patterns are reported. From the sample, the Mediterranean regions show the highest levels of asymmetry. In addition, an econometric analysis of the determinants of the asymmetries in regional fluctuations is carried out. The results show the significance of specialisation in production as a determinant of asymmetries in the regions and the importance of the geographical location of a region in accounting for its level of asymmetry. Furthermore, regions whose neighbours show highs levels of asymmetry tend to show similarly high levels of asymmetry.

RESUMENEn este trabajo se ofrece un resumen de la literatura teórica y empírica sobre la convergencia económica y se presenta una primera caracterización del comportamiento del PIB per cápita relativo en Europa en el período previo a la I Guerra Mundial. Del estudio con datos de corte transversal se deduce el incumplimiento de la hipótesis de β-convergencia y se verifica la existencia de β-convergencia a estados estacionarios que son distintos para cada uno de los países. El análisis con datos de serie temporal refuerza el cuadro. Durante el período 1870–1913, sólo los países con niveles de renta per capita de partida medios lograron acercarse a los niveles de PIB per capita de los inicialmente más ricos.

Chapter 1: Introduction-Time, space and economics in the history of Latin America -- Chapter 2: Comparing different estimation methodologies of regional GDPs in Latin American countries -- Chapter 3:Productive and regional development policies in Latin America since 1890 -- Chapter 4: Regional inequality in Latin American countries -- Chapter 4.1: Growth and convergence among Argentine provinces since 1895 -- Chapter 4.2: From West to East: Bolivian Regional GDPs since the 1950s. A story of natural resources and infrastructure -- Chapter 4.3: The evolution of regional income inequality in Brazil, 1872-2015 -- Chapter 4.4: Spatial inequality in Chile in the long run: a paradox of extreme concentration in absence of agglomeration forces (1890-2017) -- Chapter 4.5: Regional Economic Inequality in Colombia, 1926-2018 -- Chapter 4.6: Regional GDP in Mexico, 1895-2010 -- Chapter 4.7: Peruvian regional inequality: 1847-2017 -- Chapter 4.8:Patterns of regional income distribution in Uruguay (1872-2012): a story of agglomeration, natural resources and public policies -- Chapter 4.9: Was the oil sown evenly? Long-term patterns of regional inequality in Venezuela (1881-2011) -- Chapter 5: Spatial Inequality in Latin America (1895-2010): convergence and clusters in a long-run approach -- Chapter 6: Regional inequality in Latin America: does it mirror the European pattern?.

This book traces regional income inequality in Spain during the transition from a pre-industrial society to a modern economy, using the Spanish case to shed further light on the challenges that emerging economies are facing today. Regional inequality is currently one of the most pressing problems in the European Union, and this text presents a novel dataset covering 150 years to analyse long-run trends in regional per capita GDP. Spatial clustering and a new economic geography approach also contribute to the historical analysis provided, which points to the role played by spatial externalities and their growing relevance over time. To identify the presence of spatial dependence is crucial, not only for getting a better understanding of distribution dynamics, but also for economic policy purposes. What are the potential causes behind the disparities in regional per capita income and productivity? The authors answer this by comparing results with evidence available for other countries, chiefly France, Italy and Portugal, but is of global relevance.

There is a high degree of inequality in land access across Spain. In the South, and in contrast to other areas of the Iberian Peninsula, economic and political power there has traditionally been highly concentrated in the hands of large landowners. Indeed, an unequal land ownership structure has been linked to social conflict, the presence of revolutionary ideas and a desire for agrarian reform. But what are the origins of such inequality? In this paper we quantitatively examine whether geography and/or history can explain the regional differences in land access in Spain. While marked regional differences in climate, topography and location would have determined farm size, the timing of the Reconquest, the expansion of the Christian kingdoms across the Iberian Peninsula between the 9th and the 15th centuries at the expense of the Moors, influenced the type of institutions that were set up in each region and, in turn, the way land was appropriated and distributed among the Christian settlers. To analyse the effect of these two factors, we rely on the number of farm labourers for all 471 Spanish districts (partidos judiciales) using the information contained in the 1860 Population Census. In line with various classic works, our results show that although geographic factors did play a role, the institutional setting that arose from the Reconquest is key in explaining the unequal distribution of land in Spain, particularly in the former territories of the Kingdom of Castile.

This article is an attempt to summarize in the space of barely twenty pages some of the characteristics of the historical process known as the Reconquista in the territories of today's Spain. Since this was a process that spread across eight centuries, this brief history obviously is not and does not claim to be exhaustive. On the contrary, it goes without saying that it is partial, biased and incomplete, and should be considered simply as an introduction to the subject. It looks at the Reconquista from a territorial perspective with the intention of presenting some of the key elements that led to the creation of particular institutions. These varied from region to region and, it can be argued, had an impact on the long-term economic evolution of the various territories within Spain. On the one hand, the work focuses on the timing and evolution of the military conquest of territory, from north to south, in different historical stages, while on the other it looks at the subsequent repopulation of these conquered territories as the military action moved southwards. The institutions that were created and the way society was organized at each stage of the Reconquista, including the distribution of land ownership, depended on the different factors and circumstances prevailing in each historical period. ; Este trabajo es un intento de resumir en el espacio de apenas veinte páginas algunas características del proceso histórico conocido como Reconquista en el territorio que hoy ocupa España. Obviamente, tratándose de un proceso que se extendió a lo largo de ocho siglos, esta breve historia no es, ni pretende serlo, exhaustiva. Al contrario, es parcial, sesgada e incompleta, como no puede ser de otra manera, y tiene un carácter meramente introductorio. El texto se aproxima a la Reconquista desde una perspectiva territorial con objeto de presentar algunas claves para la creación de determinadas instituciones, regionalmente diferenciadas, que habrían persistido en el tiempo y tenido un impacto sobre la evolución económica de largo plazo. En particular, el trabajo se centra, por un lado, en presentar la evolución de la conquista militar de los territorios, de norte a sur, en diferentes etapas históricas. Y por otro, en ofrecer las principales claves de la posterior repoblación de los territorios conquistados a medida que se avanzaba hacia el sur. Las instituciones que se crearon y la manera en la que se organizó la sociedad en cada etapa de la Reconquista, incluida la distribución de la propiedad de la tierra, dependió de los diferentes factores y circunstancias que prevalecieron en cada período histórico.

This article analyzes, for the first time, the evolution of regional growth and inequality over the course of thehistorical economic development process of nine countries of Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) between 1895 and 2010. In doing that, we first verify thepresence of a beta-convergence process among Latin American countries along the whole period. Nevertheless,it is also shown that convergence across countries was especially intense during the periods when differentStates implemented inward looking policies that favored regional convergence within countries. Second,we study regional sigma-convergence taking together the regions of these nine countries as unit of analysis.The study shows that regional income inequality has followed over time what appears to be an N-shapedevolution. Particularly, Latin America experienced an increase in regional inequality from the end of the XIXthcentury up to the interwar years. Nevertheless, Latin America underwent a period of regional convergencebetween the aftermath of the Second World War and the crisis of the 1970s. Finally, the crisis of the 1970s andthe changes in the international political and economic consensus in the 1980s marked the beginning of a newstage in the evolution of inequality. ; En este artículo se analiza por primera vez el crecimiento y la evolución de la desigualdad regional a lo largodel proceso de desarrollo económico de nueve países de Latinoamérica (Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia,México, Perú, Uruguay y Venezuela) entre 1895 y 2010. Para ello, en primer lugar se verifica la presenciade un proceso de β-convergencia entre los países latinoamericanos para la totalidad del periodo. No obstante,se muestra cómo este proceso fue especialmente intenso durante los periodos en los que los diferentesEstados implementaron políticas activas de desarrollo (ISI) que favorecieron la convergencia entre las regionesde un mismo país. En segundo lugar, se estudia la sigma-convergencia tomando como unidad de análisis elconjunto de regiones que componen estos nueve países. Se muestra cómo la desigualdad económica regionalha seguido una evolución en forma de N a lo largo del periodo analizado. En particular, Latinoamérica registróun incremento en la desigualdad regional desde finales del siglo xix hasta el periodo de entreguerras. Sin embargo,desde el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la crisis de la década de 1970 se registró un notableproceso de convergencia regional. Finalmente, los cambios en el consenso político y económico internacionalen la década de 1980 marcaron el inicio de una nueva etapa de crecimiento de la desigualdad regional latinoamericana.

Abstract
This article analyses the relationship between institutions and human capital formation. We use literacy rates in 1860 at the municipal level in Valencia where the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 was followed by the Christian resettlement. Our findings show that male literacy was consistently lower in Morisco areas by mid-19th century. Yet, the analysis also shows the disappearance of this effect at the beginning of the 20th century. We argue that the deployment of the liberal state would have entailed the gradual decoupling of educational outcomes from the institutional heterogeneity characteristic of the Old Regime.