Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 New Member States: macroeconomic outlook and forecasts
- 2 The asymmetric impact of enlargement on old and new Member States: a general equilibrium approach
- 3 Changes in the spatial distribution patterns of European regional activity: the enlargements of the mid-1980s and 2004
- 4 Forecasting macroeconomic variables for the new Member States
- 5 The cyclical experience of the new Member States
- 6 Demand and supply shocks in the new Member States
- 7 Monetary transmission in the new Member States
- 8 Promoting fiscal restraint in three Central European Member States
- 9 Current account dynamics in the new Member States
- 10 Challenges to banking sector stability in selected new Member States
- 11 Infrastructure investments as a tool for regional development policy: lessons from the Spanish evidence
- 12 TFP, costs and public infrastructure: an equivocal relationship
- 13 Regional policies after the EU enlargement
- Index
- References
3 - Changes in the spatial distribution patterns of European regional activity: the enlargements of the mid-1980s and 2004
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Notes on the contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 New Member States: macroeconomic outlook and forecasts
- 2 The asymmetric impact of enlargement on old and new Member States: a general equilibrium approach
- 3 Changes in the spatial distribution patterns of European regional activity: the enlargements of the mid-1980s and 2004
- 4 Forecasting macroeconomic variables for the new Member States
- 5 The cyclical experience of the new Member States
- 6 Demand and supply shocks in the new Member States
- 7 Monetary transmission in the new Member States
- 8 Promoting fiscal restraint in three Central European Member States
- 9 Current account dynamics in the new Member States
- 10 Challenges to banking sector stability in selected new Member States
- 11 Infrastructure investments as a tool for regional development policy: lessons from the Spanish evidence
- 12 TFP, costs and public infrastructure: an equivocal relationship
- 13 Regional policies after the EU enlargement
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The deepening of the integration process and the continued expansion of the European Union (EU) over the last two decades have unavoidable consequences for both the spatial configuration of activity and the regional convergence process. As far as the convergence process is concerned, there is no consensus on whether integration is a positive phenomenon. Following a neo-classical view, the elimination of internal boundaries for the mobility of capital and labour will enhance the relative advantages of peripheral regions (that is, their lower salaries) inducing industry to spread to these regions. At the same time, integration may allow a better allocation of resources, leading to an increase in overall efficiency. Additionally, the enlargement of commercial links could promote convergence, at least between the regions most closely related in trade (Ben-David, 1994). Moreover, the small size of the companies in the South of Europe (unlike the North) means that they probably stand most to gain from the integration process (Neven, 1990). However, other authors do not share these optimistic views.
Thus, despite the lower salaries in the South, the core regions retain additional advantages: more accessibility to large markets, better infrastructure and human capital endowments, strong internal and external economies of scale, and so on. Furthermore, according to Krugman and Venables (1990) and Krugman (1991a, 1991b), insufficient integration (not enough reduction of the barriers) increases the concentration of the activity in the core and regional inequalities thus persist.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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