[PDF] Reshaping Economic Geography eBook

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 47,25 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Climatic changes
ISBN : 9780821376409

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"Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions--density, distance, and division--are essential for development and should be encouraged. The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalization's many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world's "bottom billion," trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced. This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it--to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions. Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration--spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today's developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive." -- Book cover.

Author : World Bank
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 34,78 MB
Release : 2008-11-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 082137608X

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Rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development. The transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed. 'World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography' concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged. The conclusion is not without controversy. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world's 'bottom billion', while others grow wealthier and live longer lives. Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress. The Report: documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow. proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations. revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today's developers can reshape economic geography.

Author : Yukon Huang
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 19,69 MB
Release : 2008-10-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 082137642X

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This companion volume to the 'World Development Report 2009' comprises twenty papers authored by noted Asian scholars. These studies highlight how, throughout East Asia, spatial considerations have influenced Government policies at the national, regional, and local levels. Key themes include how countries have dealt with: (1) agglomeration economies, urbanization, and regional disparities; (2) improving connectivity with infrastructure investments; and (3) eliminating barriers across and within countries to favor the movement of labor, goods and services. Achievements vary widely across countries: while some succeeded in enhancing competitiveness and improving social outcomes, others are experiencing increasing inequalities and failures to spur growth in disadvantaged areas. The book highlights many examples of how the new economic geography is reshaping development objectives: from initiatives to foster growth via enhanced agglomeration and improved local connectivity to the world economy, to special decentralization programs that channel resources to lagging regions. This volume will be of great interest to readers working in the areas of economic policy, poverty reduction and urban-rural development strategies, and transport-led infrastructure policy.

Author : Harry Ward Richardson
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 39,42 MB
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1849805784

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The book first examines some radical new directions in Korea's regional policies instigated by the newly established permanent Presidential Commission of Regional Development. The existing nine provinces and seven 'Special Cities' (i.e. metropolitan areas), will yield considerable power and budget authority to seven new mega-regions. Many of the ideas behind the new policies (such as territorial cohesion, regional innovation and regional competitiveness) were inspired from abroad, especially Europe. There are also changes at the lower urban scale to modify Korea's traditional top-down strategies. Previous policies, named ?balanced national development', were targeted at undermining Seoul by redistributing activities, including government, to other parts of the country under the zero sum game assumption. The new policies aim to benefit both the Capital Region and other mega-regions under a ?win-win' assumption. The book evaluates these approaches. Original contributions from some of the field's foremost scholars - including Sang-Chuel Choe, Sir Peter Hall, Andreas Faludi, Michael Storper, Takashi Onishi, Maryann Feldman and Sam Ock Park - identify priorities for territorial integration, develop ideas for crossborder cooperation, discuss EU policy and policies for overall regional competitiveness, examine the construction of regional entrepreneurial advantage and consider fiscal policy and decision-making.

Author : Pierre-Philippe Combes
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 424 pages
File Size : 24,84 MB
Release : 2008-09-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0691139423

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Facts and theories, spatial inequalities, space in economic thought. Space, trade, and agglomeration, monopolistics competition. Breadth and determinants of spatial concentration, the empiics of economic geography, theory with numbers, concluding remarks.

Author : Weltbank
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 37,37 MB
Release : 2013
Category :
ISBN :

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The report has three main chapters discussing modernization, diversification and competitiveness. The chapters examine problems and barriers facing households, private firms and public agencies to achieving these objectives, and then identify the instruments that can help Russia achieve the necessary spatial transformation of its economy. Russia's long history as one of Europe's leading nations, and its more recent past as a superpower, give it grounds for greater aspirations. To realize them will require significant improvements across all aspects of the economy. Russia's economy faces many challenges, some of which are a persistent legacy from its tumultuous history in the twentieth century of civil war, two world wars and a long period of communism. But as the largest country in the world, it is not surprising that many of Russia's problems relate to its economic geography, which is the focus of this report.