NEW EVIDENCE ON REGIONAL INEQUALITY IN IBERIA (1900-2000): A GEOGRAPHICAL APPROACH

Abstract This paper presents new evidence on the evolution of regional inequality in Iberia from 1900 to 2000 from a geographical perspective. To do so we introduce a new historical dataset of regional GDPs for Spanish NUTS III and Portuguese Historical Districts (HD), synthetic indices of regional inequality and different measures of spatial correlation across regional pc GDPs. The results show that the Portuguese and Spanish national economic integration processes initially led to the economic specialization across Iberian regions promoting the divergence in terms of their regional pc GDPs. Notwithstanding, ulterior advances in the integration of national markets and the subsequent first stages in the process of adhesion of these two national economies into the UE coexisted with a progressive reduction in Iberian regional inequality

Business experience and start-up size: buying more lottery tickets next time around?

This paper explores the determinants of start-up size by focusing on a cohort of 6247 businesses that started trading in 2004, using a unique dataset on customer records at Barclays Bank. Quantile regressions show that prior business experience is significantly related with start-up size, as are a number of other variables such as age, education and bank account activity. Quantile treatment effects (QTE) estimates show similar results, with the effect of business experience on (log) start-up size being roughly constant across the quantiles. Prior personal business experience leads to an increase in expected start-up size of about 50%. Instrumental variable QTE estimates are even higher, although there are concerns about the validity of the instrument

Location of R&D abroad — an analysis on global cities

This chapter investigates the determinants of the location of MNEs’ overseas R&D activities, by focusing on two major drivers. On the one hand, external location factors lead the firm to separate its activities along the value chain and geographically disperse these activities in different locations. On the other hand, the R&D location choice may be driven by the existence of internal (intra-firm) linkages that motivate firms to locate their value chain activities in the same location (intra-firm co-location). Using data from the fDi Markets database, the study examines 2580 location decisions of new R&D greenfield investments made by MNEs in 110 global cities worldwide, over the period 2003–2014. Results from Conditional and Mixed Logit econometric models reveal that both external and internal factors matter. Findings confirm the strong role of external agglomeration economies, but also suggest that previous R&D and production activities of the same MNE increase the probability to locate R&D in a given global city