El crecimiento de las regiones y el paradigma del desarrollo divergente. Un marco teórico

The Regional Growth Theories (RGT) are of fundamental importance not only for the understanding of the economic growth process, but for explaining inequalities or asymmetries on the inter and intraregional level, that is divergent development. The aim of this paper is to propose a general framework of RGT, under the assumption that these theories are complementary, not mutually exclusive. Initially we describe the regional growth theories and justify their relevance in the regional analysis field. Afterward, each theory is presented in a schematic way according with their own assumptions. We focus on every factor and mechanism that stands out as determinants of the regional growth, and also on those that reinforce the divergent development. Finally, we propose an overview of the RGT and a general framework that summarizes their main proposals and highlights the strong degree of complementarity among them.