02403nam a2200301 a 4500 1/51315 051123s2005 lu u pdd 0 0gre 92-894-8868-9 1016-8060 (print) 1725-3187 (online) ECFIN/REP 52259/05-EN 33196 GR-PeUP eng ΚΕΤ Αλφαβητική σειρά Barrios, Salvador. The dynamics of regional inequalities / Barrios Salvador, Strobl Eric. Brussels ; Belgium : European Commission: Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, 2005. 38 σ. ; 30 εκ. European Economy. Economic papers ; This paper analyses empirically the dynamics of regional inequalities in GDP per capita. Our starting hypothesis is that the evolution of regional inequalities should follow a bell-shaped curve depending on the level of national economic development. A number of authors going from Kuznets (1955) to Lucas (2000) have provided extensive theoretical arguments along this line suggesting that growth, because of its very nature, is unlikely to appear everywhere at the same time. Regional inequalities should then rise when countries start developing and then fall once a certain level of national economic development is reached as long as spillovers are strong enough to transmit growth and technological progress across regions. We test empirically these predictions by using regional data for a panel of European countries and by making use of semi-parametric estimation techniques. Our results provide strong support for a bell-shaped curve in the relationship between the national GDP per capita level and the extent of regional inequalities independently of the time period and regional administrative units considered. The nature of this non-monotonic relationship is not altered by the inclusion of other possible determinants of regional Economic Papers Strobl, Eric 1969- European Commission : Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Economic papers July 2005, No 229. European Economy. Economic papers ; 229. INST UNIPILB KET 20090311 EEEP 229 EEEP 229 NOLOAN 23 1 http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication_summary646_en.htm