Recession In Action: Exploring The Spatial Divergence Of Percapita Income In Greece

The present study evaluates changes in the economic performance of 51 prefectures in Greece along 2000-2012 with the aim to explore the impact of recession on disparities between coastal/urban and inland/marginal areas. An exploratory data analysis was used to investigate specific development paths for homogeneous groups of regions. To debate on the recession's impact on the increasingly complex geography of economic development in Greece, this approach has been preferred to more traditional procedures based on convergence analysis on income level and changes over time. Our results outline the existence of a time period with generalized economic growth between 2000 and 2008 reflected into a quasi-normal distribution of per-capita income among regions and increased territorial disparities. This period preceded economic stagnation (2009-2012) producing an asymmetric distribution of regional income although with moderate disparities among prefectures. Spatial dynamics in per-capita income indicate that lower-income regions are less sensitive to short-term shocks responding better to the current recession (i.e. with a moderate decrease or even with a slight increase of per-capita income). These evidence contrast with recent literature indicating how dynamic and affluent regions (metropolitan zones, manufacture districts and tourism-specialized areas) resulted to be less exposed to external shocks than disadvantaged regions. Our evidence have implications for regional science claiming for a ‘turning back’ to the economic geography of regional disparities in highly polarized countries, especially focusing on the different impact of growth and recession.