Spatial concentration in Latin America and the role of institutions

Patricio Aroca and Miguel Atienza ()

INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, 2016, issue 36, 233-253

Abstract: Spatial concentration in Latin America, especially in the southern cone, reaches high levels in all dimensions. Despite significant economic growth in the last two decades, trade openness, the return to democratic regimes and reductions in the Gini coefficients the primacy indexes of most Latin American countries remain relatively constant and among the highest in the world. This situation challenges most regional and urban economics theories that predict a reduction in spatial concentration as development proceeds, after an initial period of concentration. Furthermore, Latin American countries could be trapped in processes of agglomeration without growth. The objective of this article is twofold: first, we describe some characteristics of spatial concentration and its persistence in Latin America with special emphasis in the case of Chile; and second, we propose future research lines related to the need of rebalancing Latin American spatial economies focusing on the importance of institutions as an explanation of the persistence of spatial concentration.

Keywords: Spatial concentration; Latin America; spatially blind policies; institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 O54 R12 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aecr.org/images/ImatgesArticles/2016/12/11_ArocaAtienzareduc.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

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:ris:invreg:0334

Access Statistics for this article

INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH is currently edited by Vicente Royuela Mora

More articles in INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH from Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional C/ Viladomat, 321 entresuelo - 08029 Barcelona, Teléfono y Fax: + 34 933101112, E-mail: info@aecr.org, Web: www.aecr.org, Web Investigaciones Regionales: www.investigacionesregionales.org. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by IIRR-JORR ().