Regionalisation as a convenient strategy: An academic exercise

San Pablo

Congreso; International Association for Comparative Economic Studies (IACES); 2008

8th Arnoldshain Seminar (Universidades de Córdoba, San Pablo y Frankfurt)

Globalisation has changed the microeconomic advantages of firms? location, and the main characteristics of regional growth. As a result, the economic spatial structure of many countries has been altered. Regional economic issues, which had been put aside in mainstream economics long time ago, have received renewed attention. As a consequence, the problems related to regionalisation have become crucial for the appropriate design of economic policy. This paper approaches regionalization from several standpoints, focussing on its use as an important tool in order to achieve either general or specific targets. An example of the latter is to bring about an important reduction if the unemployment rate. We also point to the possibility of a general-purpose regionalisation scheme. Furthermore, the potential reduction of regional disparities, mainly in connection with the wide gap in living standards among those regions which are close to a country?s capital city and those located far away in the peripheries is analysed carefully. We rely on the use of Cluster Analysis to perform this academic exercise which is applied not only to the Argentine provinces but subsequently extended to Brazil and to Mercosur at large.