The Long-Term Patterns of Regional Income Inequality in Spain, 1860–2000

Abstract

Martínez-Galarraga J., Rosés J. R. and Tirado D. A. The long-term patterns of regional income inequality in Spain, 1860–2000, Regional Studies. Building on a new estimation of regional gross domestic product (GDP) from 1860 to 2000, this paper evaluates the long-run evolution of regional income inequality in Spain. It is found that sustained economic growth and the progressive integration of national markets have been accompanied by an inverted ‘U’-shaped evolution of regional income inequality. Regional inequality in income per worker rose during the second half of the nineteenth century, peaked in the year 1900 and decreased over the following ninety years. Since 1990, together with the exhaustion of the convergence in regional productive structures, Spain's membership in the European Union generated a new upsurge of differences in labour productivity across the country that could be the basis for a new phase of regional income divergence.