IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/72259.html

Some searches may not work properly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional Decentralization in Spain: a Way to Increase Dynamics of Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Piecuch, Jakub

Abstract

Paper will present the impact of Spanish devolution process on the regional economic situation. Decentralization of power from central to regional and local government since the ratification of the Constitution in 1978, is one of the most important factors of Spanish success. The shape of Spain is determined by actions heading towards prevention of the country’s disintegration into different political structures. This course of action was successful and it allowed Spain to connect democratic developments with devolution of responsibilities and fiscal measures. Because of historical factors, an asymmetry in power decentralization can be observed. Some regions, specifically those with more practice in self-governing, obtained immediately a high level of responsibilities, while others, gradually increased them for the last twenty years. However all Autonomous Communities have nowadays much the same competencies. Another situation can be observed in fiscal autonomy field. The Basque Country and Navarre function under special agreements with the central government, which grants them a nearly exclusive fiscal autonomy. The remaining fifteen regions have been dependent on central government grants and ceded taxes for years, with a low level of fiscal autonomy. As a result, economic indicators in the Basque Country and Navarre reached much higher levels than in other parts of Spain. Also the situation in the labor market is much better in the two regions. Anyway the decentralization process speeded up the acquisition of governing skills and helped to improve methods of spending European structural funds. This is so important because European means obtained by Spain within the framework of structural funds and Cohesion Fund have played the role of the most significant instrument to determine economic development of Spain and particular regions. The European aid resulted in raised economic development rate, increased investment in infrastructure and caused considerable unemployment reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Piecuch, Jakub, 2006. "Regional Decentralization in Spain: a Way to Increase Dynamics of Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 72259, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:72259
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/72259/1/MPRA_paper_72259.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julio López Laborda & Carlos Monasterio Escudero, 2006. "Regional Decentralization in Spain: Vertical Imbalances and Revenue Assignments," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0610, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Antoni Castells, 2000. "The role of intergovernmental finance in achieving diversity and cohesion: the case of Spain," Working Papers 2000/2, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    3. Luis Moreno, 2002. "Decentralization in Spain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 399-408.
    4. Molero, Juan Carlos, 2001. "Analysis Of The Decentralization Of Public Spending In Spain," MPRA Paper 8056, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Therese J. McGuire, 2007. "Fiscal Decentralization in Spain: An Asymmetric Transition to Democracy," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Robert D. Ebel (ed.), Fiscal Fragmentation in Decentralized Countries, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Antoni Castells, 2000. "The role of intergovernmental finance in achieving diversity and cohesion: the case of Spain," Working Papers 2000/2, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Piecuch, Jakub, 2007. "Two decades in the European Union - economic success of Spanish regions," MPRA Paper 70665, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2007.
    2. Piecuch, Jakub, 2009. "Influence of European integration process on social and economic performance in Iberian Peninsula," MPRA Paper 72263, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.

    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. Piecuch, Jakub, 2007. "Two decades in the European Union - economic success of Spanish regions," MPRA Paper 70665, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2007.
    2. Mr. Ehtisham Ahmad & Mr. Giorgio Brosio & Mr. Vito Tanzi, 2008. "Local Service Provision in Selected OECD Countries: Do Decentralized Operations Work Better?," IMF Working Papers 2008/067, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Ahmad, Ehtisham & Brosio, Giorgio, 2009. "Decentralization and local service provision: what do we know?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38347, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Maria Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2010. "Decentralization and efficiency of local government," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 45(3), pages 571-601, December.
    5. Marcel Thum & Thomas Fester & Andreas Kappler & Helmut Seitz, 2005. "Öffentliche Infrastruktur und kommunale Finanzen : Gutachten im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen und des Bundesamtes für Bauwesen und Raumordnung," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 37, October.
    6. Elisenda Paluzie, 2010. "The Costs and Benefits of Staying Together: The Catalan Case in Spain," Chapters, in: Núria Bosch & Marta Espasa & Albert Solé Ollé (ed.), The Political Economy of Inter-Regional Fiscal Flows, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Emili Tortosa Ausina & Diego Prior & María Teresa Balaguer-Coll, 2006. "Decentralization And Effiency In Spanish Local Goverment," Working Papers. Serie EC 2006-02, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    8. Ms. Izabela Karpowicz, 2012. "Narrowing Vertical Fiscal Imbalances in Four European Countries," IMF Working Papers 2012/091, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Piecuch, Jakub, 2008. "Czy decentralizacja władzy przyspiesza tempo rozwoju regionalnego? Doświadczenia hiszpańskich wspólnot autonomicznych [Does devolution of power increase dynamics of regional development? Experience," MPRA Paper 72261, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    10. Paula Salinas Pena & Albert Sole-Olle, 2009. "Evaluating the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes in Spain," Working Papers in Economics 228, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    11. Jorge Díaz-Lanchas & Peter Mulder, 2021. "Does decentralization of governance promote urban diversity? Evidence from Spain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1111-1128, June.
    12. Si Guo & Yun Pei & Zoe Xie, 2018. "Decentralization and Overborrowing in a Fiscal Federation," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2018-9, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    13. Guo, Si & Pei, Yun & Xie, Zoe, 2022. "A dynamic model of fiscal decentralization and public debt accumulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    14. Juan S. Mora‐Sanguinetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Economic effects of recent experiences of federalism: Analysis of the regionalization process in Spain," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 30-63, January.
    15. Piecuch, Jakub, 2009. "Rola struktury administracyjnej kraju w rozwoju hiszpańskich wspólnot autonomicznych [The role of the administrative structure in Spanish autonomous communities development]," MPRA Paper 72264, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    16. Willem MOLLE, 2006. "EU cohesion policies; Adequate constitutional foundations and regulatory and financial constructions; need for further optimisation," Departmental Working Papers 2006-08, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    17. Salmon, Keith, 2008. "New Directions in European Regional Policy and their Implications for Spain," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 12, pages 147-177.
    18. Juan González-Alegre, 2015. "Does fiscal decentralization affect the effectiveness of intergovernmental grants? European regional policy and Spanish autonomous regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 817-847, November.
    19. Paula Salinas Pena & Albert Sole-Olle, 2009. "Evaluating the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes in Spain," Working Papers in Economics 228, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    20. Albert Santasusagna Riu & Ramon Galindo Caldés & Joan Tort Donada, 2019. "Furthering Internal Border Area Studies: An Analysis of Dysfunctions and Cooperation Mechanisms in the Water and River Management of Catalonia, Aragon and the Valencian Community (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-12, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    regions; decentralization process; fiscal autonomy; devolution of responsibilities; growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    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:pra:mprapa:72259. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.