Regional inequalities during the process of national economic development: A critical approach

Abstract

During the process of national economic development, regional disparities in the form of growing differences in the regional income level and spatial polarization of economic activities diverge in the early phase and converge at a more advanced stage. This is the basic paradigm of Williamson and Friedmann, which is refuted in this article both on the empirical and the theoretical level. Apart from serious objections to the methodological approach (coefficients, income aggregates and regionalization), the analysis of recent data provides no empirical support. As the discussion of the theoretical assumptions reveals, the capital accumulation processes in industrialized and less-developed countries differ completely; therefore, regional disparities in the latter cannot be regarded as latecomers within the same historical growth process.