Tourism has become a priority in national and regional development policies and is considered a source of economic growth, particularly in rural areas. Nowadays, wine tourism is an important form of tourism and has become a local development tool for rural areas. Regional tourism development studies based on wine tourism have a long history in several countries such as the US and Australia, but are more recent in Europe. Although Spain is a leading country in the tourism industry, with an enormous wine-growing tradition, the literature examining the economic impact of wine tourism in Spanish economy is scarce. In an attempt to fill this gap, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of wine tourism on economic growth and employment in Spain. More specifically, by applying panel data techniques, we study the economic impact of tourism in nine Spanish wine routes in the period from 2008 to 2018. Our results suggest that tourism in these wine routes had a positive effect on economic growth. However, we do not find clear evidence of a positive effect on employment generation.

Sustainable Rural Development is essential to maintain active local communities and avoid depopulation and degradation of rural areas. Proper assessment of development in these territories is necessary to improve decision-making and to inform public policy, while ensuring biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services supply. Rural areas include high ecological value systems but the vulnerability of environmental components in development indicators has not been sufficiently pinpointed. The main objective of this work was to propose a new sustainable rural development composite indicator (nSRDI) while considering an environmental dimension indicator based on ecosystem services vulnerability and social and economic dimension indicators established using a sequentially Benefit of the Doubt-Data Envelopment Analysis (BoD-DEA) model. It aimed also to test effects of weighting methods on nSRDI. The composite indicator was applied to 10 regions (comarcas) in the Huesca province, Spain, producing a ranking of regions accordingly. The indicator was further tested through the analysis of the effect of an equal and optimum weighting method on scores and rankings of regions. Results showed substantial differences in nSRDI scores/rankings when vulnerability was added to the process, suggesting that the environmental dimension and the perspective from which it is conceived and applied matters when addressing sustainable rural development.

The aim of this paper is to identify convergence clubs in house prices among Spanish regions over the period 1995:Q1 to 2007:Q4 and to investigate which factors are responsible for club formation. Employing a novel regression-based convergence test proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007) we find that regional house prices do not converge to a common trend, which confirms the existence of some degree of segmentation in the Spanish housing market. The research results support the existence of convergence clubs, indicating that Spanish regions form four separate groups that converge to different house price levels. Results of an ordered logit model suggest that differences in population growth, size of the rental market, initial house supply and geographical situation have played a crucial role in determining club membership.

This paper analyzes the process of related diversification at the regional level in two emerging countries: Brazil and Mexico. It claims that apart from regional available capabilities, capabilities coming from abroad in the form of imports may play an important role in the development of new products. In this sense, it proposes a new index to measure the impact of imports on the process of product diversification. The empirical analysis confirms that: the process of productive diversification is highly path dependent; productive density explains the creation of advantages in related products; and interregional and international relations contribute to encourage new activities.