Economic geography

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Template:Human geography Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the Earth. It focuses on the the location of industries and retail and wholesale businesses, on transportation and trade, and on the changing value of real estate. Courses in economic geography may cover such topics as transportation, agriculture, industrial location, world trade, and the spatial organization and function of business activity.

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Fields of study

The distribution of economic activities on Earth is influenced by many environmental, social, political, historical and other factors. Geology can affect resource availability, geomorphology the cost of transportation, and the quality of soils th land use decisions. Climate can influence natural resource availability (forestry products) and location or type of agriculture. The social and political institutions that are unique to a particular region also have an impact on economic decisions.

Economic geography research focuses on the study of spatial aspects of economic activities on various scales. The distance to the city (or Central business district) plays a significant role in economic decisions of firms while other factors such as access to the sea and the presence of raw materials like oil affects the economic conditions of countries. Singapore, for example, occupies a key position as a seaport, while the wealth of Saudi Arabia depends almost entirely on oil.

In today's world location and distribution of economic activities is much influenced by globalization. States and their borders play less significant role as many countries tend to eliminate the effects of borders and deepen the mutual cooperation of border regions that are often economically marginal and underdeveloped. The best example is the creation of European Union.

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Approaches to study

  • Behavioral economic geography examines the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, decision making, and behavior of firms and individuals.
  • Historical economic geography examines history and the development of spatial economic structure.
  • Regional economic geography examines the economic conditions of particular regions or countries of the world. It deals with economic regionalization as well.
  • Theoretical economic geography focuses on building theories about spatial arangement and distribution of economic activities.
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History of economic geography

In the history of economic geography there were many influences coming mainly from economy and geographical sciences.

First traces of the study of distribution of economic activities on Earth can be found in Strabo's Geographika written almost 2000 years ago.

During the period known in geography as environmental determinism notable (though later much criticized) influence came from Ellsworth Huntington and his climatic determinism. Valuable contributions came from location theorists such as Johann Heinrich von Thünen or Alfred Weber.

Other influential theories are Walter Christaller's Central place theory, the theory of core and periphery or Pred's matrix.

Contemporary economic geographers tend to specialize in areas such as location theory and spatial analysis (with the help of geographic information systems), market research, transportation geography, land or real estate price evaluation and others.

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Further reading

  • Lloyd, P. E. - Dicken, P.: Location in space - A Theoretical Approach to Economic Geography., Second Edition. Harper & Row Ltd, London, 1977.
  • Dicken, P.: Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century., Fourth Edition. The Guilford Press, 2003.
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See also

de:Wirtschaftsgeografie es:Geografía económica fr:Géographie économique hr:Ekonomska geografija nl:Economische geografie ja:経済地理学 ru:Экономическая география sk:Ekonomická geografia fi:Talousmaantiede ta:பொருளாதாரப் புவியியல்

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