Christiane Krieger-Boden, Institut für Weltwirtschaft -
Kiel Institute for World Economy, Kiel, Germany
Does Integration Trigger Regional Structural Change? An Econometric Analysis of West European Regions (assigned to theme
The process of European integration is expected to entail severe regional structural change thereby affecting the economic situation of regions and the objective of regional cohesion in Europe. However, most studies reviewing the evolution of structural change in Europe, be it among countries or among regions, find little movement at all over time. This is in contrast to several hypotheses to be drawn from trade theories. These theories hold that increasing integration via decreasing transportation and transaction costs increases the specialization of regions according to comparative advantages (Heckscher-Ohlin theory), or as a result of the existence of increasing returns to scale (New Economic Geography). In order to get more reliable results on the impact of time and of the integration process on the location of industries, the suggested paper aims at analysing econometrically the hypotheses at stake for the case of West European regions.
 | Conference organized through conf-vienna
(copyright Gunther Maier) |