Government quality and spatial inequality: a cross-country analysis

This paper examines the relationship between government quality and spatial inequality across forty-six countries over the period 1996-2006. The results of the analysis point to the existence of a negative and significant association between government quality and the magnitude of regional disparities. Countries with better quality of government register lower levels of spatial inequality. This finding is robust to the inclusion in the analysis of additional explanatory variables that may affect both regional disparities and governance outcomes. The observed link between government quality and spatial inequality is confirmed by various robustness tests.