Intégration économique et disparités spatiales dans l'Union Européenne

KRUGMAN and LIVAS ELIZONDO (1996) had shown how, in some cases, policies of commercial liberalization -like those experienced by the countries that become members of the EU - could improve the distribution of the manufacturing production between central and peripherical regions in a country in its first stages of development. We extend this model to the subsequent stages of development, taking into account the evolution of productive specialization through a more intensive production in terms of qualified labor. Results show that this activity?s diffusion could be delayed when agglomeration economies, by their influence on urban transport infrastructures (through the cost of inter-urban transport on industrial goods, and the labor force commuting cost within each urban center), therefore reinforcing the central region?s attractivity. Classification JEL : R, O18, L9.<np pagenum="250"/>