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.

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.

A comprehensive picture of the effects of economic integration on industry location in less developed East Asia - particularly in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar - who pursued trade liberalization and economic integration after the 1990s. Studies include detailed empirical analyses of regional industry locations as well as country overviews.

The dissipating multilateral trading system and splintering in a number of trading blocs and arrangements has been one of the most important issues in international economics, particularly after the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995.

Research on the spatial aspects of economic activity has flourished over the past decade due to the emergence of new theory, new data, and an intense interest on the part of policymakers, especially in Europe but increasingly in North America and elsewhere as well. However, these efforts--collectively known as the "new economic geography"--have devoted little attention to the policy implications of the new theory. Economic Geography and Public Policy fills the gap by illustrating many new policy insights economic geography models can offer to the realm of theoretical policy analysis. Focusing primarily on trade policy, tax policy, and regional policy, Richard Baldwin and coauthors show how these models can be used to make sense of real-world situations. The book not only provides much fresh analysis but also synthesizes insights from the existing literature. The authors begin by presenting and analyzing the widest range of new economic geography models to date. From there they proceed to examine previously unaddressed welfare and policy issues including, in separate sections, trade policy (unilateral, reciprocal, and preferential), tax policy (agglomeration with taxes and public goods, tax competition and agglomeration), and regional policy (infrastructure policies and the political economy of regional subsidies). A well-organized, engaging narrative that progresses smoothly from fundamentals to more complex material, Economic Geography and Public Policy is essential reading for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers seeking new approaches to spatial policy issues.

Where economic activity will locate in the future is one of the most important questions in economics. Even though advances in technology have reduced the cost of transport, communication and information gathering and processing, hence curtailing the 'distance penalty', local proximity (clusters) of firms that produce similar, competing and/or related products together with supporting institutions still matter. Economies of scale, activity-specific backward and forward linkages (indivisible production), accumulated knowledge and skills, innovation, existence of sophisticated customers and a fall in transportation costs play relevant roles in the 'protection' of clusters and absolute locational advantages of certain locations. '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.

The purpose of this book is to provide a guided tour through the theoretical foundations of spatial locations of firms and industries in an evolutionary economic framework. It addresses the issues of how a location of business in geographical space is selected and where economic activity may (re)locate in the future. The analysis is in the context

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.

This book explores statistical models in regional specialization, presenting a brand new measure. It begins by reviewing existing indicators and models of regional specialization before outlining a newly created, spatially embedded model of specialization based on the spatial distribution of firms. It addresses the various applications of the model, and how the model can be used in regional policy.