The National and International Effects;of Regional Policy Choices: Agglomeration Economies, Peripherality and Territorial Characteristics

This paper analyzes the effects of national regional policy choices on domestic and foreign regions to detect the different interests at play. The analysis starts from a new 2-country-4-region model with agglomeration economies, an immobile production factor and a mobile one, allowing the study of international capital and profit flows moreover, different assumptions on bilateral transport costs allow to obtain results in different spatial settings. It is shown that concurrent and often conflicting interests co-exist, especially when agglomeration economies are strong. The other key variables influencing the results are the characteristics and specificities of regions, which can be introduced in the model, and the existence of peripheral regions.