Unequal raw material exchange between and within countries: Galicia (NW Spain) as a core-periphery economy

Pablo Piñero (), David Pérez-Neira, Juan Infante-Amate, Maria-Luisa Chas-Amil and Xoán R. Doldán-García

Ecological Economics, 2020, vol. 172, issue C

Abstract: A global multi-regional input-output model with sub-national resolution for Galicia, north-west Spain, was used to study physical and value added trade balances between Galicia, the rest of Spain and the world. Within the framework of Ecologically Unequal Exchange theory, we argue that a region, such as Galicia, can play a twofold role as core and periphery in the global division of extractive activities. We show that Galicia is a sink, i.e. net importer of natural resources from middle- and low-income economies, and that the lower the income of the trade partner, the more raw material intensive the imports (measured as upstream kg per USD imported value added). However, this physical deficit is less accentuated than for the rest of Spain and Galicia's material footprint is significantly lower (~14.2 compared with ~24.5 t/capita). Moreover, Galicia is a source, i.e. net exporter of raw materials compared with more thriving European Union economies and, even for some key trade partners, such as Germany, UK and the rest of Spain, it is a net importer of value added.

Keywords: Unequal exchange; Material footprint; Material flow accounting; Value added; World system theory; Multi-Regional Input-Output (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919310985
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:172:y:2020:i:c:s0921800919310985

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106621

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().