ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE BALANCE-OF- PAYMENTS CONSTRAINT: THE CASE OF THE SPANISH REGIONS, 1988-2009

摘要

The balance-of-payments can act as a constraint on the rate of output growth, on putting a limit to the growth in the level of demand to which supply can adapt. Regional economies might be particularly sensitive to this effect, since they are presumably more integrated among them. In this paper, we examine this issue for the case of the 17 Spanish regions over the period 1988-2009, and calculate their balance-of-payments-constrained growth rates. By comparing these balance-of-pay-ments-constrained growth rates with the actual growth rates, we would be able to assess whether the balance-of-payments has worked as a constraint on growth.