Theories and Techniques for Regional Analysis is a book that saw the light in March, 2015, product of the interdisciplinary work performed by ten Regional Development researchers, who work in four prestigious teaching-research institutions in México and Spain: Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desarrollo Regional at Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala (CIISDER-UAT), faculty members at Estudios Regionales en Economía, Población y Desarrollo de la Universidad Autónoma in Ciudad Juárez (UAJ), Centro de Estudios en Desarrollo Regional y Análisis Económico at El Colegio de Tlaxcala, A.C, and the Political Sciences and Applied Economy Departments at Universidad de Murcia.

In the prologue of Theories and Techniques for Regional Analysis, the authors establish that it is directed at post-graduate students in Regional Development; however, it is a text which is doubtless interesting for all researchers in the subject, especially for those inclined towards Neo-Classical economy, and its methods and techniques for application. Thus, and through six chapters, the work provides theoretical methodological knowledge in four large themes: regional analysis, spatial analysis and delimitation techniques, socioeconomic characterization techniques, and statistical regression models for the determination of regions, which in conjunction seek to understand the region not only from its economic dimension, but also from the social one.

The theoretical-conceptual work by Jaime Ornelas Delgado is presented in the first place, called “Some theoretical aspects of regional analysis”, where a historical review is performed of the creation of the concept of region as human construct, which distinguishes one territory from another, depending on the factors to be considered, on the weight they are given, and leading to the creation of homogeneous, nodal or plan regions. The author’s discourse leads him to contextualize the importance of regional studies and their analysis methods, with the aim of building a region through abstract representations that are usable by economic science, enriching it by helping to respond not only the traditional questions of what, when, when and for whom, but also where, as the physical space where production relationships take place; this, according to Assuad (2001: 22), highlights what differentiates traditional economic studies from regional analysis studies, “the spatial dimension”, re-conceptualizing the region as a territory produced by a harmonious relationship of a nature-society whole in permanent construction. The chapter ends by inviting readers to make scientific abstractions and with methodological rigor in terms of regional analysis.

In the following two chapters, “Definition and delimitation of local labor markets: An application in the region of Murcia” and “Spatial models: Delimitation of the area of influence in the city of Apizaco, Tlaxcala”, José Francisco Beltrán et al. and Isabel Castillo and Celia Hernández present two works where techniques of spatial analysis and delimitation were applied.

In the first case, applied to what is defined as Local Labor Markets (LLM) in the region of Murcia, Spain, and through an interesting interpretation of workforce as merchandise, they analyze the uncertainties that the lack of information about this market causes, which they qualify as non-transparent and subject to factors outside of it, such as the characteristics of the territory, the productive fabric, the infrastructure, the environment and the population. The study makes a delimitation of the LLM based on data for labor contracting in the 45 municipalities in Murcia, estimating, through a mathematical model, the indexes of autonomy and coherence of the LLM between the strength of workforce demanded and that available.

In their turn, Castillo and Hernández perform a spatial analysis of the influence that the city of Apizaco, Tlaxcala, exerts on what they call the hinterland or area of influence; that is, the territory organized by a city that is linked to it, predominantly through socioeconomic relationships. To explain this situation, they apply a gravitational model, understood as “a description of the interaction between mass and physical or economic distance” and its correspondence with what the authors call “demographic energy”, which involves 20 localities from nine neighboring municipalities. From these assumptions, a region is determined, conceptualized by Delgadillo (1990) as the manifestation of matter that is expressed, as well as the space in an objective way of chaining elements that integrate it, and this is how by applying a mathematical model they build the area of influence, which, taking into consideration its resources and spatial distribution, explains the regional inequalities in matters of production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services.

In a third group of subjects, a regionalization of the state of Tlaxcala is presented, through the socioeconomic characterization of the entity, taking into consideration the six regions determined by the PEOT, 2000. In this chapter, Hernández et al. obtain, through a principal components analysis with 28 variables, a characterization through conglomerates of the economic and social dimensions of the state, grouped into six factors: health and occupation, salary, generational replacement, housing, education and value of primary production, which explain the intra-regional differences in the state.

The last two chapters presented in the book, where complex regression models are used, were directed at building and describing the delimitation of two regions from a perspective of regional economy, with a macroeconomic profile. In the first of them, called “Linear regression model applied to regional analysis”, Isaac Leobardo Sánchez applies the classical linear regression taking into consideration total production, private, foreign and public investment, and its relationship with schooling, in order to highlight the high explicative value of the technique to study determinants of production in a region, quantifying the level of significance of the variables in prospective studies, particularly when the dependent variables face changes in the independent one.

Lastly, Rosa María García, in her study “Multiple linear estimation of panel data for regional analysis”, shows how the economic behavior of a region can be studied through the technique of shift-share and indicators of concentration and localization, establishing the pertinent independent variables that explain territorial inequalities in a plan region; in this case, for the states of the Mexican Republic.

This is how, in 223 pages, Theories and Techniques for Regional Analysis, becomes a textbook for specialists in regional development, since a methodological guide can be found in it about how to perform regional analysis, reaffirming how the adequate use of quantitative techniques gives the science of Regional Development the necessary certainty to allow making inferences and, therefore, recommendations for public policy; and, why not?, for private policy as well.