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This article measures inequality at the provincial level in Spain for different benchmark years between 1860 and 1930. It then empirically assesses the relationship between economic growth and inequality. The results confirm that, although growing incomes did not directly contribute to reducing inequality, at least during the early stages of modern economic growth, other processes associated with economic growth such as the rural exodus to urban and industrial centers, the demographic transition, and the spread of literacy, among others, notably improved the situation of the bottom part of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the debate on institutions and economic development by examining the historical link between land access inequality and education. Using information from the 464 districts existent in mid-19th century Spain, this paper confirms that there is a negative relationship between the fraction of farm labourers and male literacy rates. This result does not disappear when a large set of potential confounding factors are included in the analysis. The use of the Reconquest as a quasi-natural experiment allows us to rule out further concerns about potential endogeneity. In addition, controlling for different sources of spatial dependence does not explain away this result either. By analysing the rural–urban divide and the gender-specific information on the number of schools and teachers, as well as schooling enrolment rates, this paper also explores the mechanisms behind the observed relationship. As well as supply factors, our results show that demand effects also played a significant role in explaining the negative impact of inequality on education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional income inequality in Latin Europe (France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal) showed a distinctive pattern between 1870 and 1950. Data about population on a decadal basis and Gross Domestic Product (gdp) for 171 regions (84 French départements, 22 Italian regioni, 18 Portuguese distritos, and 49 Spanish provincias) shows that regional inequality increased from 1870 to 1910 but gradually flattened out thereafter until 1950. Current regional disparities in per-capita income throughout Latin Europe are essentially the result of a long-term evolution that traces back to the origins of modern economic growth. Moreover, this study shows the emergence of the core–periphery pattern that characterizes much of Latin Europe today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 19th century, the Spanish economy went through the early stages of the industrialisation process. This process developed in parallel to the growing market integration of goods and factors as a result of the liberal reforms and the construction of the railway network, with the subsequent fall in transport costs. In that period, there were major changes in the pattern of industrial location across Spain, with an increasing spatial concentration of industrial activities between the 1850s and the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and a deeper regional specialisation. What were the forces behind these changes? On the theoretical side, the Heckscher-Ohlin model suggests that the spatial distribution of economic activity is determined by comparative advantage due to factor endowments. In turn, New Economic Geography models show the existence of a bell-shaped relationship between the process of market integration and the degree of concentration of industrial activity in the territory. This paper examines empirically the determinants of industrial location in Spain between 1856 and 1929 estimating a model that nests both Heckscher-Ohlin and NEG factors and tests the relative strength of these forces, since they are not mutually exclusive and might be at work simultaneously. The analysis of the results shows that both comparative advantage and NEG-type mechanisms were determinant drivers of industrial location in Spain, although their relative strength changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides new evidence on the advance of literacy in Spain during the period 1860–1930. A novel dataset, built with historical information from the Spanish population censuses (over 8000 municipalities), enables this process to be described in detail from the end of the Ancien Régime to the Second Republic. The study thus presents stylised facts at a very low level of geographic aggregation, thereby permitting a closer examination of the main patterns. Overall, spatial differences in literacy were sizeable during the whole nineteenth century. Furthermore, these disparities were only significantly reduced between 1900 and 1930 when the growing demand for these basic skills was met by stronger government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the long‐term relationship between regional inequality and economic development. Our data set includes information on national and regional per capita GDP for four countries: France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, compiled on a decadal basis for the period 1860–2010. Using parametric and semiparametric regressions, our results confirm the rise and fall of regional inequalities over time although in recent decades they are on the rise again. Finally, we identify structural change as being a significant transmission mechanism of the inverted‐U relationship. The arrival of technological shocks, beginning during the onset of industrialization, and the transition from agrarian to industrial economies, would explain this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using district population in Spain between 1860 and 1991, recorded approximately every decade, this article examines whether initial population affects subsequent population growth. While such a relationship between these two variables hardly existed during the second half of the nineteenth century, this link increased significantly between 1910 and 1970, although this trend was abruptly interrupted by the Civil War and the autarkic period that followed. The intensity of this relationship decreased in the 1970s, a process that continued during the 1980s. Our findings also stress that agglomeration economies were stronger in medium-size districts, especially from 1960 onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years ago Jeffrey G. Williamson suggested that during the process of economic development regional income differences trace out an inverted U-shaped pattern. Since then several studies have tested this hypothesis. Yet, most of these only explore particular stages of development. This study, however, investigates the long-term evolution of regional income inequality. Using a novel dataset spanning 150 years, we describe per-capita GDP disparities across Spanish provinces (NUTS3) from 1860 to 2010. Moreover, to gain a deeper understanding of regional inequality, we examine other relevant dimensions: modality, mobility and spatial clustering. Overall, the findings confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped pattern. Furthermore, there appears to be two major phases. Between 1860 and 1930 the upswing in regional inequality was accompanied by a certain mobility in income class or rank. Then, regional convergence followed until the 1980s, but mobility was rather low and spatial clustering significantly increased. Thus, a map with ‘Two Spains’ emerged, and spatial polarization has become a major concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]