Has concentration evolved similarly in manufacturing and services? A sensitivity analysis.

Our first objective is to compare the degree of concentration in manufacturing and services, with special emphasis on its evolution in these two sectors, using a sensitivity analysis for different concentration indices and different geographic units of analysis: municipalities and local labour systems of Catalonia in 1991 and 2001. Most concentration measures fail to consider the space in which a particular municipality is located. Our second objective is to overcome this problem by applying two different techniques: by using a clustering measure, and by analysing whether the location quotients computed for each municipality and sector present some kind of spatial autocorrelation process. We take special account of the differences in patterns of concentration according to the technological level of the sectors.Geographic concentration, Manufacturing, Services, Local Labour Systems, Spatial Econometrics.

Concentration of the Economic Activity: Comparing Methodologies and Geographic Units

Despite the important role of the service sector in the economic activity, the majority of the studies, both at international and at the Spanish level, have focused their attention in determining the degree of concentration of the manufacture sector. The main purpose in this article is to analyze the concentration and the location pattern both of the manufacturing and the service sectors in Catalonia using different methodologies proposed in the economic literature, such as the Ellison&Glaeser index (1997) or the methodology used by O’Donoghue and Gleave (2004), among others. The calculation of the different indices using the municipalities of Catalonia as the geographic unit of the analysis allows us to make a comparison of the results between indices, and also to compare the location pattern and the degree of concentration of the manufacturing and service sectors. Moreover, the results that we obtain for Catalonia are compared with those obtained for other economies (United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, etc.). In a second step, we re-calculate these indices using as the geographic unit the local labour systems of Catalonia instead of the municipalities. The election of these two kind of geographic units is motivated thanks to the ongoing debate about what is the ideal geographic unit when analyzing the concentration of economic activity (Duranton and Overman (2006, forthcoming) and Marcon and Puech (2003), at the international level and Viladecans (2004), at the Spanish level). Using local labour systems will overcome the problem of working with geographic units based on administrative borders, like municipalities, that are not based in real economic areas. The calculation of these indices for the two kind of geographic units allows us to compare the results for the two areas. Once we have calculated these indices, we use the techniques of the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis in order to study the geographic distribution of the concentration of the economic activity. Finally, in order to perform a more in-depth analysis of the relationships among different sectors, we use the Porter (2003) methodology to define clusters of activity.

Regional economic dynamics and convergence in the european union

Deepening in the European Union (EU) integration process has enhanced the question of economic disparities at a regional level. The convergence process observed until the late seventies was exhausted onwards in coincidence with important changes in the economic activity. The paper shows how these factors would have provoked a regional differenciated response that, despite being important, would have not strengthened the decrease in regional inequalities. We use an alternative and (in our opinion) richer approach to the traditional convergence analysis, where the evolution of the whole regional distribution is what matters and not that of a representative economy. Moreover, when analysing inequalities among regional economies, the geographical space acquire an outstanding role. Hence, we apply spatial association tests and relate them to the convergence analysis.convergence, distribution dynamics, eu regions

La utilidad de la econometria espacial en el ambito de la ciencia regional

Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Cientifica (CINDOC). C/Joaquin Costa, 22. 28002 Madrid. SPAIN / CINDOC - Centro de Informaciòn y Documentaciòn CientìficaSIGLEESSpai