This paper proposes a measure with six components to evaluate the degree of centrality (advantage) of a sector located in a region considering internal and external components and economic and geographical aspects. The main novelty of this indicator is that the definition of “mass” takes...

Considering the case of Portugal over the period 1995-2000, this paper analyses whether the location of market services is explained by the geographical proximity of the industrial sectors that use these services as intermediate inputs. A rather detailed level of regional disaggregation is used,...

There is scant evidence on the determinant factors of structural similarity between geographical spaces; moreover, it has been produced considering only the national level. The present study provides evidence on this topic at the regional level, based on the analysis of 275 Portuguese counties....

During the last three decades, a vast literature emerged on the empirical evidence of productivity spillovers from FDI. This is related to the fact that multinational firms own intangible assets which may be transmitted to domestic firms and thereby raise their productivity level. Results...

Empirical evidence on productivity spillovers - a concept that embodies the fact that foreign enterprises own intangible assets which can be transmitted to domestic firms, thus raising their productivity level - is ambiguous. With a panel data set at the firm level for the Portuguese...

This paper aims to establish whether geographical proximity between the locations of multinational firms and domestic firms facilitates the occurrence of FDI spillovers. Using data for Portugal, this hypothesis is clearly confirmed. However, the impact varies according to whether the...

The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have gone through a dramatic process of industrial restructuring in which the Europe Agreements have played a major role. Using detailed statistics, we analyse the transformation of CEECs’ export structures and whether it led to structural...

It has been shown that countries located further from global economic activity will have lower levels of per capita income and human capital. We evaluate, for the Portuguese case, the validity of the positive relationship of economic centrality with per capita income and with human capital at...

We rely on vertical and horizontal differentiation models to study the cross-industry and cross-country determinants of Portuguese intra-industry trade in 1997. We identify distinct factors for each type and the comparative advantage explanation for the vertical case. To confirm the robustness...

The effects of the reduction of international trade costs on the internal economic geography of each country have been very scarcely studied in empirical terms. With data for Portugal since its adhesion to the European Union, we test the hypotheses put forward by the new economic geography...