Regional growth in Portugal: Assessing the contribution of earnings and education inequality
Regional economic growth in Portugal has mainly been studied from the perspective of convergence with data ending by the early 2000’s. The country as a whole has stopped converging to the output levels of the richest European countries by this period and has also become one of the most uneq...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Geographical Institute "Jovan Cvijić" SASA
2015-01-01
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| Series: | Zbornik Radova: Geografski institut "Jovan Cvijić" |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7599/2015/0350-75991502239S.pdf |
| Summary: | Regional economic growth in Portugal has mainly been studied from the
perspective of convergence with data ending by the early 2000’s. The country
as a whole has stopped converging to the output levels of the richest
European countries by this period and has also become one of the most unequal
EU member-states in terms of income distribution in the meantime. It is thus
important to analyze the growth performance at the regional level in a more
recent period, 1995- 2007, emphasizing regional disparities in inequality as
explanatory factors. This study examines the relationship between inequality
and regional growth in Portugal at NUTS III level exploring the explanatory
power of earnings and education inequality measures computed with data from
the Quadros de Pessoal database. The results point to a positive relationship
between initial inequality and regional growth, stronger for education than
for earnings inequality, but with earnings inequality measures revealing a
higher explanatory power. Moreover, there is evidence that it is inequality
at the top end of the distribution that is relevant to explain regional
growth, a result that reinforces the higher propensities to save of the
richer and the incentives mechanisms of transmission from inequality to
growth. Additionally, the evidence on the existence of convergence among
Portuguese NUTS III regions during the period under analysis is mixed. These
findings are robust to the introduction of most additional control variables
and the consideration of alternative measures of earnings and education
inequality. |
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| ISSN: | 0350-7599 1821-2808 |