Economic geography
Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics.[1] There are four branches of economic geography.
For the journal, see Economic Geography (journal).Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topics, including the location of industries, economies of agglomeration (also known as "linkages"), transportation, international trade, development, real estate, gentrification, ethnic economies, gendered economies, core-periphery theory, the economics of urban form, the relationship between the environment and the economy (tying into a long history of geographers studying culture-environment interaction), and globalization.
Theoretical background and influences[edit]
There are diverse methodological approaches in the field of location theory. Neoclassical location theorists, following in the tradition of Alfred Weber, often concentrate on industrial location and employ quantitative methods. However, since the 1970s, two major reactions against neoclassical approaches have reshaped the discipline. One is Marxist political economy, stemming from the contributions of scholars like David Harvey, which offers a critical perspective on spatial economics. The other is the new economic geography, which considers social, cultural, and institutional factors alongside economic aspects in understanding spatial phenomena.
Economists like Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs have contributed extensively to the analysis of economic geography. Krugman, in particular, referred to his application of spatial thinking to international trade theory as the "new economic geography," which presents a competing perspective to a similarly named approach within the discipline of geography. This overlap in terminology can lead to confusion.[2] As an alternative, some scholars have proposed using the term "geographical economics" to differentiate between the two approaches.[3]
Variation by industry[edit]
Industries have different patterns of economic geography. Extractive industries tend to be concentrated around their specific natural resources. In Norway, for example, most oil industry jobs occur within a single electoral district. Industries are geographically concentrated if they do not need to be close to their end customers, such as the automotive industry concentration in Detroit, US. Agriculture also tends to be concentrated. Industries are geographically diffuse if they need to be close to their end customers, such as hairdressers, restaurants, and the hospitality industry.[9]