Aglomeração regional em Portugal: Uma aplicação linear dos modelos da Economia Espacial

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the process of agglomeration between the Portuguese regions based on the models of the New Economic Geography which emphasize the importance of the spatial factors (distance, transport and communication costs) in explaining the concentration of economic activity in certain locations. In a theoretical context, an attempt is made to explain the complementarity between the agglomeration process associated to the New Economic Geography and the polarisation process associated to the Keynesian tradition describing the mechanisms on which these two processes rely on. The empirical study pretends to identify the forces of agglomeration responsible for the concentration of industrial activity in certain regions in Portugal. In order to study all these issues, the paper is divided into four parts: the first part provides a short introduction explaining the processes of agglomeration and polarisation pointing out the main similarities and differences; the second part explains the main theoretical issues of the New Economic Geography; the third part presents the model used in the empirical study and discusses the results obtained from the estimation process. And finally, the last part concludes. It is importance to note, that the process of agglomeration in Portugal shows some evidence of concentration which favors the region “Lisboa e Vale do Tejo” (interpreted as evidence of regional divergence in Portugal), and that productivity is an important element in explaining regional agglomeration (despite the fact that this factor is omitted in the models of the New Economic Geography).