《区域经济学regional economic development第六章》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《区域经济学regional economic development第六章（29页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、 We have talked briefly about so-called economic geography models and tied this discussion to endogenous growth models. This work has been pioneered by an economist named Paul Krugman. We are going to talk about his work and see how this can be related to the more general issue of the role of techno
2、logy and the question of so-called knowledge industries as a new source of hope for less-developed regions.Krugmans work deals with a combination of trade theory and location theory.Standard trade theory basically ignores space as an explicit argument in trying to explain trade.A standard theory of
3、trade essentially argues that countries comparative advantage in trade depends on factor endowments. This model assumes perfect competition and constant returns to scale.Krugman basically says that neither of these assumptions is likely to be correct in todays world, i.e., he argues that imperfect c
4、ompetition and increasing returns to scale are more likely to be true.In this world of imperfect competition and increasing returns to scale, trade will be driven by things like market size and, very importantly, external economies, of which increasing returns is an example, as is labour pool effect
5、s, specialist supplier effects, etc.What we observe in practice in such a world is a concentration or clustering of industries in certain locations and a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy whereby once a region gets ahead, it stays ahead, i.e., growth begets more growth.Although Krugman sets forth hi
6、s theory to explain international trade, he also argues that these factors of increasing returns and external economies are most likely to be found at the local or regional level. In other words, they explain the economic specialization and growth of small areas and only by extension, of whole count
7、ries.So now, a theory of international trade has been turned into a theory of regional development.One of the more important characteristics of this theory is the fact that once specialization happens, it gets locked in by the cumulative gains that it produces. So it continues indefinitely unless th
8、ere is some external change that alters the profitability of enterprises and forces them to adjustTransport costs will matter in this process because if they are too high from a particular location, then that location will not be used. So they must be low enough that they do not offset the economies
9、 of scale benefits of a particular location. If they are really low, of course, then they simply do not matter. This, as we will see shortly, may be very important for so-called information industries.An important element in this theory is technology. This is for two reasons.First, technology at any
10、 point in time will define production possibilities and therefore will play a significant part in determining the areas in which a region can/should specialize.Second, changes in technology can be a significant factor in changing the relative advantage of a region and/or the profitability of existin
11、g activities.From this perspective, technology becomes a very important factor in defining the fortunes of a region and/or changes in those fortunes over time.Now lets consider a particular technology, computer-communications technology and what this potentially means for regional development in a K
12、rugman type world.What is the knowledge, or information economy?Relates to firms or parts of firms primarily concerned with the processing of information, either as an input to or an output of the production process.Involves use of computer and communications technologyMakes location increasingly ir
13、relevant to performance of taskFOOTLOOSE FIRMSFree to moveCan be located anywhere from a technical point of viewMarginal cost of serving an additional customer is virtually zero; hence, location independentIncludes information/knowledge industryRegional Income Levels in Europe and North America have
14、 been diverging in the last 15-20 years after an earlier period of convergenceIn Europe, this is partly due to a common set of rules for regions at very different levels of developmentIt is also partly due to the growth of the service sector as part of the tradeable goods sectorModel developed by Kr
15、ugman basically argues that concentration of manufacturing is based on the interaction of economies of scale with transportation costs.Finds that countries/regions with a larger home market tend to export manufactures and larger countries have a disproportionately larger share of manufacturing.Argue
16、s that agglomeration is more likely when the share of manufacturing is high and transport costs are low.Shows that sufficiently high transport costs make imports so expensive that home production is assured.Suppose three sectors, with information sector being added to manufacturing and agriculture.Assume that Information Sector has no or very low transport costs.
