ABSTRACT
The macroeconomic mechanisms that protect countries against competition do not operate at regional level, and thus theoretically impose a principle of absolute advantage. The territorial features that play an important role in diversified-relational space theories by explaining and interpreting the level of competitiveness achieved entirely disappear in the macroeconomic models. The macroeconomic, sectoral, social and territorial (MASST) model is an attempt to merge territorial elements with macroeconomic ones for the explanation of regional growth, and it is in this sense an innovative step forward. The territorial structures present in MASST represent both the propulsive forces of regional growth and the factors that explain local responses to exogenous aggregate trends. The internal logic of the model is an elegant merger of two different approaches: macroeconomic Keynesian growth theory as regards national growth, and the theory of endogenous development as regards the regional growth differential.
