In this paper we discuss regional income growth and inequality based on a new set of long-run data. The data cover 173 European regions in 16 countries, from 1900 to 2015. These data allow us to compare regions over time, among each other, and to other parts of the world. After some brief notes on methodology, we describe the basic patterns in the data in terms of some key dimensions: variation in the density of population and economic activity, structural change with a declining role of agriculture, the rise and fall of industry, and the long rise of services. We show how ‘fundamentals’ of institutions and geography affected income levels over the twentieth century, and describe how regional growth after 1945 turned from convergence and adjustment to shocks to divergence. In the long run we observe a U-shaped pattern of regional convergence followed by divergence, not unlike recent observations on personal income and wealth distributions.

中文翻译：

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从长远来看，区域增长和不平等：欧洲，1900年至2015年

在本文中，我们基于一组新的长期数据来讨论区域收入的增长和不平等。数据涵盖了1900年至2015年间16个国家/地区的173个欧洲地区。这些数据使我们可以将不同地区之间以及彼此之间以及与世界其他地区进行比较。在对方法论进行了简要说明之后，我们从一些关键方面描述了数据的基本模式：人口密度和经济活动的变化，农业作用下降的结构变化，工业的兴衰以及服务的长期兴起。我们展示了制度和地理的“基本原理”如何影响二十世纪的收入水平，并描述了1945年之后的区域增长如何从趋同和调整向冲击向分化转变。