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Is foreign trade important for regional growth? Empirical evidence from Portugal

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  • Soukiazis, Elias
  • Antunes, Micaela

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether openness, export shares or trade balances affect regional growth in Portugal. Human capital is also considered as a conditional factor to growth, expressed by the rate of success in high school education. Thus, we analyse whether the combination of international trade and human capital is relevant to explain regional growth in Portugal and how it affects the convergence process between regions. In the empirical analysis, interaction terms are introduced to explore the existence of different performances between regions of the Littoral and the Interior. As an alternative to the traditional approach that considers the population growth rate, we include the share of sectoral employment aiming to capture labour specialisation in the main sectors of economic activity and measure its impact on regional growth. The empirical analysis estimates the conditional convergence model of the Barro's type, applied to the Portuguese NUTS3 regions for the period 1996-2005. The GMM estimation approach applied to regional panel data reveals that factors associated with external trade, human capital and sectoral labour share (especially of the industrial sector) are relevant to explain regional growth and convergence in Portugal.

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  • Soukiazis, Elias & Antunes, Micaela, 2011. "Is foreign trade important for regional growth? Empirical evidence from Portugal," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1363-1373, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:28:y:2011:i:3:p:1363-1373
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ana Paula Ribeiro & Vitor Carvalho & Paula Santos, 2016. "Export-Led Growth in the EU: Where and What to Export?," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 319-344, August.
    3. Ana Poças & Elias Soukiazis, 2013. "Are health factors important for regional growth and convergence? An empirical analysis for the Portuguese districts," International Journal of Public Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(1/2), pages 44-64.
    4. Kounetas, Kostas & Napolitano, Oreste, 2018. "Modeling the incidence of international trade on Italian regional productive efficiency using a meta-frontier DEA approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 45-58.
    5. Nazarczuk Jarosław M. & Umiński Stanisław, 2018. "The geography of openness to foreign trade in Poland: The role of special economic zones and foreign-owned entities," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 39(39), pages 97-111, March.
    6. Mariya Neycheva, 2016. "Secondary versus higher education for growth: the case of three countries with different human capital’s structure and quality," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 2367-2393, November.
    7. Benos, Nikos & Karagiannis, Stelios, 2016. "Do education quality and spillovers matter? Evidence on human capital and productivity in Greece," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 563-573.
    8. Benos, Nikos & Karagiannis, Stelios, 2013. "Do Cross-Section Dependence and Parameter Heterogeneity Matter? Evidence on Human Capital and Productivity in Greece," MPRA Paper 53326, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Davor Mikulic & Andrea Galic Nagyszombaty, 2015. "Does international trade cause regional growth differentials in Croatia," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 33(1), pages 81-102.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conditional convergence Human capital External trade Employment share GMM regressions Panel data;

    JEL classification:

    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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