Lugar: Sala de Conferencias. Centro Jerónimo de Ayanz (INARBE)

Ponente:  Víctor M. Gómez-Blanco (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y el Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales)

Título: Unexpected side effects of trade policy: integration in the Spanish wheat market, 1725-1905 (trabajo conjunto con Enrique Llopis-Agelán)
 

Abstract:  This paper analyses market integration in Spain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using novel econometric techniques and a new hand-collected database of monthly wheat prices spanning several cities, we find that liberalization policies from 1756 onwards fostered integration between Spanish coastal regions and foreign markets, but inland (net-producer) cities became more economically isolated during the same period. However, in the nineteenth century, this trend reversed. Protectionist measures helped connect inland regions to the periphery, albeit without yielding any discernible efficiency gains. Finally, the advent of the railway system in the 1860s elevated the integration process to a higher level by reducing transport costs and increasing market efficiency.