Economic Integration And Spatial Location Of Firms And Industries 1 Conceptual Issues

Aims to provide a survey of the theoretical foundations of spatial location of firms and industries, and to explore the impact of economic integration on this process. This book is intended for scholars, theorists, policymakers and business executives, who face these challenges to the economy.

Aims to provide a survey of the theoretical foundations of spatial location of firms and industries, and to explore the impact of economic integration on this process. This book is intended for scholars, theorists, policymakers and business executives, who face these challenges to the economy.

Aims to provide a survey of the theoretical foundations of spatial location of firms and industries, and to explore the impact of economic integration on this process. This book is intended for scholars, theorists, policymakers and business executives, who face these challenges to the economy.

Where economic activity will locate in the future is one of the most important questions in economics. 'Global' competitiveness often depends on highly concentrated 'local' knowledge, capabilities and common tacit codes of behaviour, which can be found in a geographical concentration (cluster) of firms.

This book discusses the way in which economic integration and preferential trade agreements reinforce or alter the existing location of industries. Using a conceptual approach with real life examples, the author seeks to clarify and explain the key tendencies of the relationship and influence between spatial distribution of production and economic integration. Geography of Production and Economic Integration will develop students', specialists' and policymakers' understanding of this highly topical subject.

A crucial question in contemporary economics concerns where economic activities will locate and relocate themselves in the future. This comprehensive, innovative book applies an evolutionary framework to spatial economics, arguing against the prevailing neoclassical equilibrium model, providing important concrete and theoretical insights, and illuminating areas of future enquiry.

Where economic activity will locate in the future is one of the most important and challenging questions in economics. Even though advances in technology have reduced the cost of transport and communication which has curtailed the "distance penalty" for business operations, local proximity of firms that produce similar, competing and/or related products still matters. This reinforces the absolute, rather than relative, advantages of many small areas. The location of firms depends not only on costs of production and marketing, but also on economies of scale, activity-specific backward and forward linkages (indivisible production), accumulated knowledge, path dependence, innovation, the existence of sophisticated customers (markets) and on unpredictable chance events and historical accidents. "Global" competitiveness often depends on highly concentrated "local" knowledge; capabilities and common tacit codes of behaviour which can be found in spatially concentrated firms (clusters). Although there are certain principles for the location of firms, the issue is still complex and subject to further theoretical and empirical analysis.