This edited collection examines the evolution of regional inequality in Latin America in the long run. The authors support the hypothesis that the current regional disparities are principally the result of a long and complex process in which historical, geographical, economic, institutional, and political factors have all worked together. Lessons from the past can aid current debates on regional inequalities, territorial cohesion, and public policies in developing and also developed countries. In contrast with European countries, Latin American economies largely specialized in commodity exports, showed high levels of urbanization and high transports costs (both domestic and international). This new research provides a new perspective on the economic history of Latin American regions and offers new insights on how such forces interact in peripheral countries. In that sense, natural resources, differences in climatic conditions, industrial backwardness and low population density areas leads us to a new set of questions and tentative answers. This book brings together a group of leading American and European economic historians in order to build a new set of data on historical regional GDPs for nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. This transnational perspective on Latin American economic development process is of interest to researchers, students and policy makers.

This book traces regional income inequality in Spain during the transition from a pre-industrial society to a modern economy, using the Spanish case to shed further light on the challenges that emerging economies are facing today. Regional inequality is currently one of the most pressing problems in the European Union, and this text presents a novel dataset covering 150 years to analyse long-run trends in regional per capita GDP. Spatial clustering and a new economic geography approach also contribute to the historical analysis provided, which points to the role played by spatial externalities and their growing relevance over time. To identify the presence of spatial dependence is crucial, not only for getting a better understanding of distribution dynamics, but also for economic policy purposes. What are the potential causes behind the disparities in regional per capita income and productivity? The authors answer this by comparing results with evidence available for other countries, chiefly France, Italy and Portugal, but is of global relevance.