Does distance matter for determining regional income in the European Union?: An approach through the market potential concept

This paper focuses on the relationship between market potential and income for the European Union (EU) regions over the period 1982-1999. It is proved that closeness to large consumer markets or in other words, market potential, is an important explanatory variable for regional income in the early 1980s, but it has decreased its significance in determining EU regions income in the 1990s. Thus dynamic income regions have also emerged in the EU periphery, and need not necessarily be close to rich regions.