Tendencias de largo plazo de la desigualdad territorial en España (1860-2015)

Abstract

This article carries out an analysis of the evolution of per capita GDP regional inequality in Spain between 1860 and 2015. It is pointed out that regional inequality has followed a U-inverted path from the middle of the XIXth century, at the beginning of national economic growth process. Inequality reached a maximum during the first third of the XXth and started a decreasing path from the 1950s to the 1980s. From then on, it has experienced a new increasing trajectory. Thus, the evolution of regional inequality traces an N path. In addition, from the first third of the XXth century it appears a geographical pattern in regional inequality, with the poorer regions placed in the South and Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, being the richer located in the Northeast of the country. Besides it is also observed a very low mobility in the regional relative per capita income ranking. Differences in labour productivity, arising from different sectoral economic structures, are identified as the main proximate cause of regional per capita GDP inequality. Notwithstanding, in the last decades, it is observed the growing relevance of labour market differences as an important factor for the understanding of regional inequality in Spain