Industrialization, desindustrialization and new industrialization in the Spanish regions (1950-2000)

Abstract

A view from the economic history This article analyses the evolution of Spanish industry between 1950 and 2000 from a regional perspective. In a preliminar section the paper focuses on the previous industrial trayectories -from the middle of nineteenth century- stressing the importance of the initial industrial location. In this way, during the second half of the twenty century a first phase of strong industrial growth and subsequently another one of structural change -named “new industrialization”, took place, on the basis of the emergence of high technology sectors-, but it hardly involved a spatial relocation of industrial activities. The work includes new quantitative regional data on industrial value added, a more accurate comparative analysis between three Spanish regions -two industrialized, Catalonia and the Basque Country, and another one agrarian, Andalusia-, and finally, an introductory study on the Spanish industrial cities in this period.