Geography of talent and regional differences in Spain

Ebru Kerimoglu () and Burhan Karahasan
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Ebru Kerimoglu: Istanbul Technical University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

No 201107, IREA Working Papers from University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics

Abstract: Tentative empirical evidence suggests that the agglomeration of talent contributes to regional development. However, given that talented people are not evenly distributed across regions, this paper seeks to determine how the concentration of talent affects patterns of regional development. Here, we empirically evaluate the effects of the distribution of talent on regional differences by means of a detailed analysis of the 17 Autonomous Communities of Spain between 1996 and 2004. We hypothesise that regions specialising in strategic sectors that are creative and which can be assumed to enjoy rapid growth in productivity will experience faster rates of development and, in turn, that this concentration of talent will have a positive impact on the region’s economic performance. Thus, we believe that this mechanism can explain the marked regional imbalances in Spain. Our findings confirm that regional differences, measured in terms of GDP per capita and by, - industrial and service- oriented production, are influenced by the Communities’ talent bases as determined by, educational attainment and employment in assumed to be strategic for regional development, inasmuch as these sectors provide economic specialization.

Keywords: Talent; Regional differences; Panel data; Spain. JEL classification: C33; O18; R11; J24. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2011-06, Revised 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-lma, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ira:wpaper:201107

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