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Why Isn't the Whole of Spain Industrialized? New Economic Geography and Early Industrialization, 1797–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2004

JOAN R. ROSÉS
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economic History and Instituto Laureano Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, C/Madrid 126, 28903 Getafe, Madrid, SpainDepartment of Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. E-mail: jroses@clio.uc3m.es.
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Abstract

Spain provides an opportunity to study the causes of regional differences in industrial development over the nineteenth century. As transportation costs decreased and barriers to domestic trade were eliminated, Spanish manufacturing became increasingly concentrated in a few regions. This article combines Heckscher-Ohlin and economic-geography frameworks and finds that comparative-advantage and increasing-return effects were economically very significant and practically explained all differences in industrialization levels across regions. The deficits of some regions in terms of industrialization appear to have been largely attributable to their factor endowments and the absence of home-market effects for modern industries.

Information

Type
ARTICLES
Copyright
© 2003 The Economic History Association
Figure 0

AGRARIAN NOMINAL AND REAL WAGE DISPERSION, 1833–1914 (unweighted coefficient of variation of wages)

Figure 1

ESTIMATES OF HECKSCHER-OHLIN DETERMINANTS OF PRODUCTION

Figure 2

THE REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT (percentage relative to Spanish totals)

Figure 3

THE CHANGING REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF MODERN AND TRADITIONAL MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT, 1797–1910

Figure 4

HOOVER'S COEFFICIENT OF LOCALIZATION IN MANUFACTURING, 1797–1910

Figure 5

IMPACT ON INDUSTRIALIZATION LEVELS OF FACTOR ENDOWMENTS

Figure 6

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY EFFECTS ON PRODUCTION: AGGREGATES

Figure 7

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY EFFECTS ON PRODUCTION: INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES