Putting Spanish steel on the map : the location of Spanish integrated steel, 1880-1936

Houpt, Stefan

Publication:
Putting Spanish steel on the map : the location of Spanish integrated steel, 1880-1936

dc.affiliation.dpto	UC3M. Departamento de Ciencias Sociales	es
dc.contributor.author	Houpt, Stefan
dc.date.accessioned	2009-10-26T11:53:19Z
dc.date.available	2009-10-26T11:53:19Z
dc.date.issued	2002
dc.description.abstract	By contrasting the optimal with the actual location of Spain’s main production centre in Bilbao, we have tried to resolve the enigma that mislocation introduced an important welfare loss in Spain’s industrialisation. This analysis considers the optimal location for integrated steel mills in Spain from their origins (1880s) until the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The first part of this article introduces the relevant aspects for formalising a model, while Section 2 applies the methodology. The numerical results show how the major technical change – the reduction of coal consumption – affected each of the alternative sites. They also allow us to identify ‘the overall optimum site’, which was not Bilbao. Our final conclusions confirm that the actual centre of iron and steel production during the period considered was a second-best location. The cost in terms of direct welfare loss, in terms of captive markets and rent-seeking used to maintain this second-best solution, and the ultimate consequences of mislocation, point to an inefficiency which has changed the course of modern Spanish industrialisation.
dc.description.status	Publicado
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation	Economic Review of Economic History, 2002, vol. 6, nº 2, p. 193-220
dc.identifier.doi	10.1017/S1361491602000084
dc.identifier.issn	1474-0044
dc.identifier.publicationfirstpage	193
dc.identifier.publicationissue	2
dc.identifier.publicationlastpage	220
dc.identifier.publicationtitle	Economic Review of Economic History
dc.identifier.publicationvolume	6
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10016/5553
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Cambridge University Press
dc.relation.publisherversion	http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1361491602000084
dc.rights	©Cambridge University Press
dc.rights.accessRights	open access
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
dc.subject.eciencia	Economía
dc.subject.eciencia	Historia
dc.title	Putting Spanish steel on the map : the location of Spanish integrated steel, 1880-1936
dc.type	research article	*
dc.type.review	PeerReviewed
dspace.entity.type	Publication