Mardi | 2018-05-29
Salle des thèses 16h – 17h20

Jesus LOPEZ-RODRIGUEZ – Julian VASQUEZ-ROLDAN

This paper focuses on the analysis of the role played by market potential in the spatial income structure observed in Colombia over the period 1990-2015. Based on the geographical economics theory we derive the so called nominal wage equation which establishes a relationship between nominal wages and a distance weighted sum of the volume of economic activities in surrounding locations which is usually known as market potential. The estimation of this equation using Colombian departamental data over the period 1990-2015 reveals that market potential plays a crucial role in explanation of the spatial distribution of per capita income. Moreover the results also show that access to markets became more important over the course of the period under analysis which is pointing to a process of spatial concentration of economic activities in Colombia where the agglomeration forces are more important than the dispersion ones. Finally, two important channels that might be affecting the shaping of the spatial distribution of income were devised, physical and human capital.