Spatial effects of internationalisation of the Spanish automobile industry

The authors investigate the spatial evolution of automobile production in Spain in the post-war period, in relation to a typology of changing regional specialization. The article describes how successive rounds of investments have transformed the traditional pattern of specialization into a configuration determined by the production and network strategies of foreign investors. The spatial outcome of this process may be attributed, to some extent, to specific locational strategies pursued by the foreign investors; there is also a high incidence, however, of defacto spatial changes, resulting from foreign acquisitions of local firms. As a result, internationalization has made the local production structure more aligned with, but also highly dependent on, the economic core areas of Europe.