IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cem/jaecon/v7y2004n2p231-248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industrial specialisation and geographic concentration: Two sides of the same coin? Not for the European Union

Author

Abstract

Some recent studies have shown that specialisation of countries has tended to increase, while regional concentration of countries has tended to decrease. This seems to be counterintuitive at first glance. In this paper, we use the entropy index - as the indicator of structural change with the neatest aggregation properties to show how this divergence can happen. The main purpose of the paper is methodological, but we also apply the methodology to a specific case study: Manufacturing in the European Union since 1985. We confirm for this interesting period that increasing industrial specialisation has been offset by faster growth in the smaller Member States, with the net effect that industries have become somewhat less geographically concentrated. In terms of economic geography the evidence is in line with the second part of the inverted U-curve (where decreasing transport costs eventually foster de-concentration). This is no contradiction to increasing specialisation of countries in specific industries as predicted by many models in the old as well as the new trade theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Karl Aiginger & Stephen W. Davies, 2004. "Industrial specialisation and geographic concentration: Two sides of the same coin? Not for the European Union," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 7, pages 231-248, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cem:jaecon:v:7:y:2004:n:2:p:231-248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ucema.edu.ar/publicaciones/download/volumen7/aisinger.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2005. "A Spatial Theory of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1464-1491, December.
    2. Mary Amiti, 1999. "Specialization patterns in Europe," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 135(4), pages 573-593, December.
    3. Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2000. "Economic Integration, Specialisation and the Location of Industries. A Survey of the Theoretical Literature," Austrian Economic Quarterly, WIFO, vol. 5(2), pages 73-80, May.
    4. Marius Brülhart, 1995. "Industrial Specialisation In The European Union: A Test Of The "New Trade Theory"," Economics Technical Papers 955, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Encaoua, David & Jacquemin, Alexis, 1980. "Degree of Monopoly, Indices of Concentration and Threat of Entry," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 21(1), pages 87-105, February.
    6. Karl Aiginger & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2004. "The Single Market and Geographic Concentration in Europe," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, February.
    7. Paul Krugman, 1992. "Geography and Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262610868, April.
    8. Haaland, J.I. & Kind, H.J. & knarvik, K.H.M. & Torstensson, J., 1998. "What Determines the Economic Geography of Europe?," Papers 19/98, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration-.
    9. Martin Hallet, 2002. "Regional Specialisation and Concentration in the EU," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura & Martí Parellada (ed.), Regional Convergence in the European Union, chapter 3, pages 53-76, Springer.
    10. Sukkoo Kim, 1995. "Expansion of Markets and the Geographic Distribution of Economic Activities: The Trends in U. S. Regional Manufacturing Structure, 1860–1987," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 881-908.
    11. Karl Aiginger & Wolfgang Leitner, 2002. "Regional concentration in the United States and Europe: Who follows whom?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 138(4), pages 652-679, December.
    12. K.H. Midelfart & H.G. Overman & S.J. Redding & A.J. Venables, 2000. "The location of European industry," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 142, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cutrini, Eleonora, 2009. "Using entropy measures to disentangle regional from national localization patterns," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 243-250, March.
    2. Brulhart, Marius & Traeger, Rolf, 2005. "An account of geographic concentration patterns in Europe," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 597-624, November.
    3. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Overman, Henry G., 2004. "The spatial distribution of economic activities in the European Union," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 64, pages 2845-2909, Elsevier.
    4. Bagoulla, Corinne & Péridy, Nicolas, 2011. "Market access and the other determinants of North–South manufacturing location choice: An application to the Euro-Mediterranean area," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 537-561.
    5. Jens Suedekum, 2006. "Concentration and Specialization Trends in Germany since Re-unification," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 861-873.
    6. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2010:i:062 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Henry Overman & Stephen Redding & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Economic Geography of Trade, Production, and Income: A Survey of Empirics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0508, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Palan, Nicole & Schmiedeberg, Claudia, 2010. "Structural convergence of European countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 85-100, May.
    9. HAEDO , Christian & Mouchart, Michel, 2011. "A Stochastic Independence Approach for different Measures of Global Specialization," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2011006, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    10. Eleonora CUTRINI, 2006. "The Balassa Index Meets the Dissimilarity Theil Index: a Decomposition Methodology for Location Studies," Working Papers 274, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    11. Eleonora CUTRINI, 2005. "Trends in European Manufacturing Location: Country versus Region," Working Papers 247, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    12. HAEDO, Christian & MOUCHART, Michel, 2012. "A stochastic independence approach for different measures of concentration and specialization," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2012025, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    13. Antje Hildebrandt & Julia Wörz, 2004. "Determinants of Geographical Concentration Patterns in Central and Eastern European Countries," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 70-95.
    14. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Del RÍo, 2012. "Concentration of Economic Activity: Inequality-Based Measures," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 223-246, June.
    15. Bode, Eckhardt & Krieger-Boden, Christiane & Siedenburg, Florian & Soltwedel, Rüdiger, 2005. "European integration, regional structural change and cohesion in Portugal," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 3767, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. Maria Tsiapa, 2014. "Industrial Concentration Patterns of the European Union," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 5-33.
    17. Ying Ge, 2006. "Regional Inequality, Industry Agglomeration and Foreign Trade: The Case of China," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Ge, Ying, 2009. "Globalization and Industry Agglomeration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 550-559, March.
    19. Simonetta Longhi & Peter Nijkamp & Iulia Traistaru, 2003. "Determinants of Manufacturing Location in EU Accession Countries," ERSA conference papers ersa03p310, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Aleksandra Parteka, 2010. "Employment and export specialisation along the development path: some robust evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 145(4), pages 615-640, January.
    21. Frances Ruane & Xiaoheng Zhang, 2007. "Where do MNEs Expand Production: Location Choices of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Europe after 1992," Papers WP211, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    structural change; geographical concentration; industrial specialisation; European integration; entropy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cem:jaecon:v:7:y:2004:n:2:p:231-248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valeria Dowding (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cemaaar.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.