European integration, FDI and the internal geography of trade : evidence from Western European border regions

In this paper we use a gravity model to study the trade performance of French and Spanish border regions relatively to non-border regions, over the past two decades. We find that, controlling for their size, proximity and location characteristics, border regions trade on average between 62% and 193% more with their neighbouring country than other regions, and twice as much if they are endowed with good cross border transport infrastructures. Despite European integration, however, this trade outperformance has fallen for the most peripheral regions within the EU. We show that this trend was linked in part to a shift in the propensity of foreign investors to move their affiliates from the regions near their home market to the regions bordering the EU core.- En aquest article analitzem el rendiment comercial relatiu de les regions frontereres a França i Espanya, mitjançant un model de gravetat. Els nostres resultats mostren que, controlant per la dimensió, la proximitat i les característiques de les localitzacions, les regions frontereres comercien en mitjana entre un 62% i un 193% més que les altres regions amb els estats veïns, i més del doble si estan dotades amb bones infrastructures transfrontereres de transport. Ara bé, malgrat el procés d'integració europeu, aquest rendiment superior ha disminuït per les regions més perifèriques de la UE. Mostrem que aquesta tendència està lligada en part a un canvi en la propensió dels inversors estrangers a localitzar les seves filials des de les regions més properes al seu mercat d'origen cap a les regions properes al centre de la UE

European integration, FDI and the geography of French trade

This paper uses an augmented gravity model to investigate whether the 1978-2000 process of European integration has changed the geography of trade within France, with a particular focus on the trends experienced by border regions. We support the conclusion that, once controlled for bilateral distance, origin- and destination-specific characteristics, French border regions trade on average 72% more with nearby countries than predicted by the gravity norm. They perform even better (114%) if they have good cross-border transport connections to the neighboring country. However, this outperformance eroded drastically for the French border regions located at the periphery of Europe throughout integration. We show that this trend is partly due to a decreasing propensity of foreign affliates to trade with their home country. This trade reorientation is less pronounced for the Belgian-Luxembourgian and German firms located in the regions which have better access to the EU core.trade ; gravity ; border regions ; European integration ; foreign direct investment

European Integration, FDI and the Internal Geography of Trade: Evidence from Western European Border Regions

In this paper we use a gravity model to study the trade performance of French and Spanish border regions relatively to non-border regions, over the past two decades. We find that, controlling for their size, proximity and location characteristics, border regions trade on average between 62% and 193% more with their neighbouring country than other regions, and twice as much if they are endowed with good cross border transport infrastructures. Despite European integration, however, this trade outperformance has fallen for the most peripheral regions within the EU. We show that this trend was linked in part to a shift in the propensity of foreign investors to move their affiliates from the regions near their home market to the regions bordering the EU core.direct investment, border regions, gravity, trade, european integration, foreign

El concert econòmic: necessitat i viabilitatcat

L’objectiu d’aquest article és analitzar la necessitat i la viabilitat de l’aplicació del sistema de concert econòmic a Catalunya. En primer lloc, es descriu el sistema de finançament de l’Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya actualment vigent i les implicacions de la sentència del tribunal constitucional sobre el mateix. En segon lloc, s’estimen els resultats per a Catalunya de la reforma del sistema de finançament autonòmic de 2009. En tercer lloc, s’analitza la necessitat del concert per disminuir el dèficit fiscal estructural de Catalunya. A continuació, es fa una estimació dels resultats econòmics per a Catalunya de l’aplicació d’un concert “a la basca”. I finalment, es plantegen unes reflexions finals

La Internacionalització de l'economia catalana: fre o estímul a la independència?

Les visions més apocalíptiques de la independència giren al voltant de l'impacte negatiu sobre l'economia catalana. Uns mals auguris que solen provenir de les grans empreses que s'han beneficiant de l'estructura oligopòlica i clientelar de l'economia espanyola i que són molt poc representatives d'un teixit empresarial català que disposa del dinamisme necessari per aprofitar les oportunitats de la internacionalització

El trilema de Rodrik i els límits de la globalització

Des de la revolució neoliberal de la dècada dels 1980, l'economia ha anat ocupant espais al poder polític, fins al punt que actualment moltes de les decisions que prenen els diferents governs dels estats són dictades des d'institucions supranacionals i que escapen del control ciutadà. Com és que s'ha arribat a aquest punt? Quins equilibris ho fan possible? Tenim elecció o alternativa

Regional integration and specialisation patterns in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyse how economic integration in Europe has affected industrial geographical concentration in Spain and explain what the driving forces behind industry location are. Firstly, we construct regional specialisation and geographical concentration indices for Spanish 50 provinces and 30 industrial sectors in 1979, 1986 and 1992. Secondly, we carry out an econometric analysis of the determinants of geographical concentration of industries. Our main conclusion is that there is no evidence of increasing specialisation in Spain between 1979 and 1992 and that the most important determinant of Spain¿s economic geography is scale economies. Furthermore, traditional trade theory has no effects in explaining the pattern of industrial concentration- L'objectiu d'aquest treball és analitzar com la integració econòmica a Europa ha afectat a la concentració geogràfica de les indústries a Espanya i explicar quines són les forces determinants de la localització industrial. En primer lloc, construïm índexs d'especialització regional i de concentració geogràfica per a les 50 províncies espanyoles i per 30 sectors industrials el 1979, 1986 i 1992. En segon lloc, realitzem una anàlisi economètrica dels determinants de la concentració geogràfica de les indústries. Les nostres conclusions més importants són que no existeix evidència d¿un augment en l'especialització a Espanya entre 1979 i 1992 i que el determinant més important de la geografia econòmica espanyola són les economies d'escala. A més a més, la teoria tradicional del comerç no explica el patró de concentració industrial

Industrial agglomerations and wage gradients: the Spanish economy in the interwar period (?)

The geographical distribution of Spanish industry shows today two interesting features. On the one hand, a high concentration, higher than what we can find in the majority of European countries. On the other hand, the coexistence of two industrial cities: Madrid and Barcelona. In Spain, the larger increases in the levels of concentration are to be found during the long period that goes from the middle of the 19th century to the Civil War (1936-1939). As for the geographical location of large industrial centers, the second half of the 19th century was dominated by the rising of Barcelona as the main center of industrial production in Spain. In those years, Barcelona got to concentrate a third of Spanish industrial output. However, the turning of the century marks a halt in this process, and Madrid begins then to increase its share in Spanish manufacturing, filling the gap gradually with the Catalan city. In this paper we suggest two explanatory hypothesis to these facts. On the one hand, we believe that the increase in the geographical concentration of Spanish industries along the period 1850-1935 is linked to the existence of scale economies in a context of increasing domestic market integration. On the other hand, we think that the initial development of Barcelona as the Spanish industrial capital and its subsequent loss of punch in front of other locations like Madrid, both the capital-city of the country and its geographical center, could be related, though not exclusively, with the changes in Spanish trade policy at the end of the 19th century. At this point in time, the nationalistic reaction after the loss of the remaining colonies, supposes the abandon of a liberal regime, characterized by a relative openness, and the adoption of a nationalistic model of development that breaks the former dynamics and imposes harsh restrictions in the international trade of goods and raw materials. The paper pretends also to provide new evidence on the relationship between integration and industrial agglomeration in the presence of scale economies, by testing directly one of the predictions that can be derived from Krugman (1991) seminal paper, that is, the existence of regional nominal wage gradients and its transformation following changes in trade regimes. Hanson (1996, 1997, 1998) has analyzed in depth these effects in the case of the Mexican economy and has shown how trade reform has weakened the industrial belt around Mexico city, giving rise to new industrial centers in the north of the country. On the contrary, our case study analyzes the effects of the substitution of an open economy by a closed economy regime, exactly the opposite process studied by Hanson. To this aim, in the empirical analysis, we test the existence of a nominal wage gradient centered in Barcelona during the period 1914-1930. Our results indicate the existence of a wage gradient centered in Barcelona during the interwar period (1914-1930) and its weakening after 1925. The evidence on the genesis of a new wage gradient centered in Madrid is not conclusive.