ABSTRACT
In 1959, the government responded to the spatial inequality problems by launching the so-called expansion laws, the Belgian variant of regional policy. Although being a small country, Belgium has always been characterized by large spatial inequality. This chapter provides new perspective by presenting estimates of provincial GDP per capita for certain benchmark years using the method proposed by Geary and Stark. A major problem concerns the official provincial GDP figures that are available from 1955 onwards. Needless to say, the provincial GDP figures per capita of 1910 and 1930 are less reliable than those of the other benchmark years. Between 1896 and 2010, the share of Hainaut in Belgian GDP fell by almost two-thirds, while that of Liege, Luxembourg and Namur halved. The provinces with the highest per capita GDP in 1896, Hainaut and Liege, fitted very closely the areas containing rich coal deposits.
