This study analyses the scope and nature of external economies in the industry of the Spanish regions between 1980 and 1992. We have chosen to analyse the manufacturing sectors (thirteen sectors from the NACE R-25) in these regions and have determined two sorts of external effect related to the evolution of industrial markets: the external intra-industrial economies, which are generated within one industrial sector at a national level, and the external inter-industrial economies, due to the crossover effects among the industrial sectors of the region. Our research shows the importance of the external intra-industrial economies for most industrial sectors and regional industries. By contrast, the meaningful values and levels of the parameters of the external inter-sectorial economies are much lower and are limited to a small group of industries.

Keywords: external economies, intra-sectorial effects, inter-sectorial effects, regional growth effects.
JEL classification: R1