Human capital accumulation and geography:: Empirical evidence from the European Union

This paper evaluates the role that geography plays in determining the spatial distribution of educational attainment levels among European Union regions, based on an extension of the standard two-sector (agriculture and manufacturing) Fujita et al. (1999) economic geography model. The present paper provides evidence that, in the European Union, educational attainment levels are higher in those regions with greater market access. This finding corroborates the theoretical predictions of the model and proves that remoteness is a penalty for the economic development and convergence of the European Union regions.