Catalonia and Spain at the Crossroads: Financial and Economic Aspects

Although the economics of secession is still in its infancy (Spolaore, 2010; Bordignon, 2010) as a specific field of economics science, some very interesting contributions have been made in the last fifteen years about this issue. The general discussion focuses essentially in the trade off between the benefits of size versus the costs of heterogeneity. The precise equilibrium point of this trade-off depends on two factors: the international openness of the economy and the quality of democracy and of institutions (Alesina, 2003, Alesina and Spolaore, 1997 and 2003; Alesina e.a., 2005; Spolaore, 2010).