This paper investigates the main determinants of economic perfor-mance in the EU from a regional perspective, covering 253 regions overthe period 2001-2008. In addition to the traditional determinants of eco-nomic performance, measured by GDP per capita, the analysis accountsfor spatial e¤ects related to externalities from neighbouring regions. Thespatial Durbin random-e¤ect panel speci…cation captures spatial feedbacke¤ects from the neighbours through spatially lagged dependent and inde-pendent variables. Social-economic environment and traditional determi-nants of GDP per capita (distance from innovation frontier, physical andhuman capital and innovation) are found to be signi…cant. Overall, our…ndings con…rm the signi…cance of spatial spillovers, as business invest-ment and human capital of neighbouring regions have a positive impact–both direct and indirect –on economic performance of a given region.

This paper presents a timely assessment of Chinese industrial productivity performances over the period . The total factor productivity (TFP) growth analysis is based on a Cobb-Douglas specification with aggregated annual data set. This study tackles some theoretical and methodological issues raised by critics of previous studies. First of all, the use of economic tools allows us to relax some restrictive hypothesis of the neoclassical growth framework such as competitive market behaviour, constant returns to scale production technology and Hicks neutral technological change. In addition, our TFP growth estimates are adjusted for business fluctuations. The paper also deals with the autocorrelation issue prevailing in most previous studies.

This paper employs a spatial Durbin growth model to estimate the impact of trade openness on regional per capita income in Brazil using a data set of 469 Brazilian micro-regions over the period [2004][2005][2006][2007]. We calculate the direct, indirect and cumulative impact on per capita income of trade openness and human capital in these micro-regions. Results indicate that greater trade openness in a region promotes economic development locally, while exerting negative influence on per capita income of the neighbouring regions. Our findings also show that human capital has a positive -direct and indirect -impact on the economic development of Brazilian micro-regions. JEL classification: F1, R11

This paper explores the impact of trade openness on the economic growth of Brazilian states according to their initial income level. This empiri- cal study covers 26 Brazilian states over the period 1989-2002. Growth rates of Brazilian states are modeled as dependent on international trade flows and a set of control variables such as initial income level, human capital, private and public physical capital, growth rate of labor force and a number of inter- action terms with trade openness. This empirical analysis relies on dynamic growth regressions, using the system GMM estimator. The results indicate that trade openness is more beneficial to states with a high level of initial per capita income and therefore contributes to increased regional dispari- ties in Brazil. In addition, trade openness favors more industrialized states, well-endowed in human capital, rather than states whose economic activity is mainly based on agriculture and farming. These results have important policy implications since achieving balanced territorial development has be- come a priority for the Brazilian federal government over the last few decades