Spatial Inequalities and Economic Growth. Editorial

Abstract

In this editorial, we summarise and comment on the five articles published in issue 9.2. The five articles are a selection of papers presented at the 'Workshop on Inequality and Regional Growth and Cohesion' organised by the Regional Quantitative Analysis research group (AQRIREA) of the University of Barcelona in November 2011. The first two articles, by De Dominicis and by Monastiriotis, focus on the analysis of regional growth and examine the influence of agglomeration and national development, respectively. The article by Ezcurra and Rodríguez-Pose looks instead at how trade openness impacts on within-country regional disparities, while the article by Kyriacou and Roca-Sagalés examines in turn how regional disparities impact on the quality of government at the national level. The final article by Sacchi and Salotti examines the impact of different forms of decentralisation on income inequalities at the household level. From our perspective, these articles contribute to a better understanding of the complex link between inequality and economic growth, while they also leave open several questions that could clearly stimulate future research on the topic.