Identificador: TDX:594
Autores: Enciso Rodríguez, Joan Pere
Resumen:
The industrial sector has played a key role in the economic development of both Spain and Catalonia. This work seeks to examine whether this sector has been equally relevant in the economic development of Lleida. It also aims to establish whether the industry that has developed in Lleida has done so in response to the needs of the local economy or in order to help decongest the industrial zone around Barcelona.The territorial scope of the study was Lleida province, within which it is possible to distinguish two clearly differentiated zones: the Lleida Plain (8th 'vegueria') and the Mountain Territory (9th 'vegueria'). The period contemplated by this study was 1964 to 1989/91. This period could be divided into three clearly distinguished economic cycles, corresponding to economic development, crisis and recovery. In the study, we used the size of the gross surplus as the criterion for studying the cycle of Lleida's industrial sector, observing whether it followed the same dynamics as those of Spain and Catalonia. It is necessary to analyse all processes of accumulation in terms of the evolution of the economic surplus. An increase in the size of the gross surplus may be the result of an increase in production, productivity and/or price that exceeds increases in costs attributable to salaries. As a result, an increase in the size of the gross surplus favours the process of accumulation, while in a period in which the size of the gross surplus decreases, this accumulation diminishes.The initial reason for this work was the fact that Lleida had, and still has, a series of important reasons for wanting to develop an industrial sector: a) The existence of important supplies of raw materials, in the form of agricultural products, that could be used to develop a series of food and transforming industries. b) The fact that Lleida is located at a strategic meeting point of major route ways that connect Barcelona, Tarragona, Zaragoza, Madrid and the Basque Country. In other words, it is near other industrialised zones and could therefore become a zone of decongestion. c) The existence of an important source of energy: the electricity produced by hydroelectric power stations. d) The existence of surplus production generated by the agricultural sector since the late 1950s and early 1960s.All of these elements suggested that Lleida had an excellent potential for industrialisation. Reality, however, has proved very different: a) The industry of Lleida has proved very dependent on the fluctuations and dynamics of the Spanish and Catalan economies. b) The expansion of the industrial sector in Lleida has mainly been based on the growth of a limited number of branches of industry: the food industry, the construction industry, and - to a lesser degree - the metal working industry. c) The industrial sector has demonstrated a strong interdependence with respect to the agricultural sector. It is therefore possible to establish the following relationship: Agriculture  Industry  Livestock farming  Industry. The level of interdependence is very significant. d) The relatively small size of the group of companies constituting the industrial branches - with the exception of the food, energy, paper and graphic arts and metal working branches - has meant that their productive activity has principally focused on serving the needs of the local territory and the Lleida market. This analysis of the economic sectors and their respective interdependencies was based on the Input-Output table for the city of Lleida and its immediate hinterland. From this table, we were able to obtain the multipliers of production, income and employment. We were also able to obtain the attraction capacities of the different economic sectors, both towards and away from the area: the Chenery-Watanabe indicator and Rasmussen coefficients. The analysis of the interdependence of the different branches was calculated from the Streit coefficients, ties and multipliers (column and file).
Repositori URV