Growth and Convergence Profiles in the Spanish Provinces (1965-1997)

Abstract

Economic performance in Spanish provinces has led to a considerable improvement in standard of living of their populations. Intense capital accumulation since the 1950s played a key roll in this process. Provincial inequalities may increase or decrease as a result of this growth pattern. This study analyzes the evolution of the disparities by means of distribution dynamics techniques. It explicitly considers economic size of each province and whether spatial spillovers exist. Results indicate that the convergence process has been especially intense for labor productivity, total factor productivity, and capital intensity, while for per capita income the patterns of convergence are less marked. When we weight our analysis according to economic size of each province, our conclusions do not hold. However, when we take geographic location into account, we find support for our conclusions.