Otoño 2006

This paper applies the concept of population potential to study the spatial structure of the European Economic Space-EU15 and its main changes with the enlargement to Central and Eastern European Countries. The analysis shows a reinforcement of the central areas and a widening and displacement to the East of the middle areas in the European spatial pattern. Moreover population potential allows us to highlight some policy guidelines for the European Spatial Development Perspective and for the future of the European Regional Policy.

This paper studies the main factors of economic immigration to Spain between 1994 and 2004. From the main theories of international migration movements, a panel data with information on fifteen countries less developed than Spain is analysed. Our results show that the stock of immigrants of the same country already living in Spain (network effect), the poverty level and the degree of urbanization of the country, differences in the unemployment rates, geographical distance and cultural affinities are determining factors of the Spanish international immigration.

This paper aims to analyze the source of territorial disparities in Peruvian family’s expenditures for period 1998-2003 using a microeconomic approach. Generally speaking, the objective is to clarify the causes and differences in per inhabitant- familiar expenditures, studying the families socio-demographic, economic and geographic characteristics and their impacts on territorial disparities.

The economy of the Canary Islands has experienced significant macroeconomic adjustment and real convergence with the European Union, being the tax and economic specificities established in its special Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) one of the main driving forces. In this paper, we have quantitatively estimated effects of such specificities have had on variables such as the GVA, income per capita, employment rate and inflation rate of the Canary economy. To that end, we have adapted the macroeconometric model Hermin-Spain to the Canarian economy, allowing us the comparison of its evolution with and without the incentives of the REF.

Dynamic factor modelling aimed to identify the evolution of the economic activity has been widely used in several industrialized countries. Though the high adaptability of such methodologies to scarcity information contexts, results may present a lack of robustness. The purpose of this paper is to prove empirically that in regional contexts, it is possible to obtain a better fitting by means of the utilization of the optimization models with binary variables. In this way, it is possible to capture the whole relationship that exists between a subset of partials indicators and the reference series.

The objective of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of regional incentive policy applied in Spain during the period 1988-2001 at a municipal scale. Specifically, the relation between economic growth and the amount of incentives received by each Spanish municipality is analysed, taking into consideration the characteristics of the subsidised projects and the municipalities concerned. One of the main problems faced was the lack of economic information at a local scale. Therefore, it was necessary to create an indicator of the municipal economic situation that could provide a comparison of the economic level of each municipality between 1991 and 2001.

This article studies the relationships between the identity perceptions associated to territory and the models of territorial development. The analysis shows the slip of the Valencian Community towards an identity localism that force to develop new models of territorial cooperation.

This work is based on a «re-assessment» of the Latin American experience regarding interventions in favour of a more harmonious territorial development. A retrospective view allows us to conclude that half a century of «trial and error» does not lead to a satisfactory result. The explanation favours a cognitive lack of the real structure and dynamics of the growth and development processes. Moreover, a new cognitive framework is suggested which is strongly based on the systems theory and on the evolving consequences of an increasing complexity.

Regional Economics has just entered in its fifties. It is a young discipline compared to other branches of Economics, yet much work has been done in this field. A vast and rich number of theoretical and methodological approaches exist nowadays to incorporate space into logical schemes, laws and models which regulate and interpret the formation of prices, demand, productive capacity, levels of output and development, growth rates and the distribution of income in conditions of unequal regional endowments of resources. This contribution provides the state of the art in Regional Economics with the aim to highlight the scientific achievements obtained so far and the theoretical and methodological gaps which still need to be filled out. Aspects that run counter to general beliefs emerge by reading the original contributions of well-known theoreticians, and will be presented. Future challenges will emerge from a critical approach to the milestones achieved so far.