Testing the New Economic Geography: Migrations and Industrial Agglomerations in Spain*

Abstract

This paper examines whether access to markets had a significant influence on migration choices of Spanish internal migrants in the interwar years. In it we perform a structural contrast of a New Economic Geography model that focuses on the forward linkage that links workers location choice with the geography of industrial production. The results prove the existence of a direct relation between workers' localization decisions and the market potential of the host regions. This could help to explain the apparently low intensity of internal migrations in Spain until the 1920s as well as its geography.

Labour migration in the enlarged EU: a new economic geography approach

“…The present study follows Crozet (2004), Kancs (2005), Pons et al (2007), Hering and Paillacar (2008) and Paluzie et al (2009) and adopts a structural NEG approach for studying the direction, size and dynamics of potential labour migration in the enlarged EU. Our empirical findings predict a selective migration between the EU Member States in the post-transitionary period.…”

“…In order to account for deficiencies of the reduced form approach to international labour migration, more recently, an increasing number of migration studies adopt a structural general equilibrium framework, which is based on the theory of the new economic geography (NEG), for studying the relationship between the factor and product market integration and labour migration (Crozet 2004;Kancs 2005;Pons et al 2007;Hering and Paillacar 2008;Paluzie et al 2009). According to the NEG framework, migrants not only follow market potential, they also affect market potential.…”

La influencia del ferrocarril en el desarrollo urbano español (1860-1910)

“…Así, para el periodo 1856-1929 Martínez-Galarraga (2012) señ ala que el mercado potencial de cada regió n, creciente con la mejora de los transportes y la integració n del mercado, fue un factor relevante en la localizació n industrial. Pons et al (2007Pons et al ( y 2009) prueban la existencia de una relació n directa entre la localizació n de los lugares a los que los trabajadores emigraban y el mercado potencial de esas regiones.…”

Market potential and regional economic growth in Spain (1860–1930)

“…These years conform a period that, in the Spanish case, was characterized by the acceleration in the process of integration of regional markets as a result of the enormous advances in the construction of transport networks. In this respect, different works show that during these years, in a growingly integrated economy, market access acted as a key factor among the determinants of the location of industry, the intensity and direction of migration flows, or regional wage levels (Martinez-Galarraga, 2012;Pons et al, 2007;and Tirado et al, 2013, respectively). Hence, the period seems especially suitable for the analysis of the impact of market potential on regional economic disparities.…”