Europe, Economic geography
The discipline of economic geography is concerned with the impact of the geophysical, social, and political environments on political activities (Hodder & Lee, 1974). It addresses the influence of location, distribution, and spatial organization of economic activities on productivity. According to Hodder and Lee (1974), economic geography follows two approaches, spatial and systematic approaches: the spatial approach espouses the view that political units, specifically nation states, have a major influence on economic activities and productivity.
The systematic approach interrogates the "influence of the natural environment upon the occupations, products, and lives of people in different parts of the world" (Hodder & Lee, 1974, 15). Anderson (2012) says that economic activities include human actions that are
geared towards the following outcomes: 1. Production of goods and services, 2. Transfer of goods and services from one economic agent to another, 3. Transform goods and services into utility through acts of consumption. These activities are back grounded against certain political, social and geophysical environments that affect the effectiveness of the activities to result in
desired outcomes.
[...] Atwood, W. W., & Clark University (Worcester, Mass.). (1925). Economic geography. Worcester, Mass: Clark Unive Alexander, J. W. (1963). Economic geography. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. McFarlane, J. (1915). [...]
[...] Other forms of localization economies have a psychological and sociological basis, for instance in industries that are fraught with risk and where a form of fraternity provides a sense of security because they give new players who are making a major investment in an industry with an uncertain future a certain level of trust through the community. Such kinds of localization economies are inherent in London's IT industry where tech start-ups with little capital and financial guarantee develop innovations to attract venture capitalists. Besides sharing ideas and information, the start-ups provide a platform where newcomers can learn and grow in a community Bibliography: Anderson, W. P Economic geography. Oxon: Routledge. Carbaugh, R. J International economics (13th edition). Mason, MA: Cengage Learning. Hodder, B. [...]
[...] Political considerations are very important and for this reason, spatial approaches to the study and description of economic geography focus on country-level activities. Companies also decide to locate their factories in certain countries because of certain geographical advantages such as proximity to ports, access to raw materials, availability of cheap and skilled labor, and other considerations including government policies that make the process of doing business easier. The presence of certain advantages within given geophysical spaces have produces the 2 phenomenon of specialization; not all countries can have the exact similar advantages and therefore maximize on the effectiveness of their economic productivity and wealth creation by harnessing their strengths. [...]
[...] The new 5 economic geography perspective therefore seems to be supported by emerging realities of economic specialization seen in the example of Germany as a chiefly industrial economy. Urbanization economies accrue their comparative advantage through having infrastructure benefits that arise from urbanization. Such economies have their businesses benefit from urban infrastructure such as airports, rail termini, and other amenities. Anderson (2012) says that “there are a variety of infrastructure services that are only available to spatial concentrations of (economic activity) because they would be prohibitively expensive to provide for a dispersed population. [...]
[...] This observation is especially true for the auto makers in Germany where industries are located close to each other for strategic purposes. It is also true for wine producing regions in France where the supply chain, especially upstream, has a closely knit relationship from the vineyards to the storage facilities and transportation. The wine makers manage to reduce transportation costs by a large margin by having these services located close together. Such closely knit network of related firms that provide service to each other in the 6 production of a single category of product is called a spatial industrial complex and it is a derivative of the need to take advantage of the juxtaposed economies. [...]
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