Regional economics is a sub-discipline of economics and is often regarded as one of the fields of the social sciences. It addresses the economic aspect of the regional problems that are spatially analyzable so that theoretical or policy implications can be the derived with respect to regions whose geographical scope ranges from local to global areas. Regional Economics: refer to the economics advantage of a geographical location and human activities of greatest height to contribute maximally to the general growth and prosperity of the region.

Origins

Regional economics has shared many traditions with regional science, whose earlier development was propelled by Walter Isard and some economists' dissatisfaction with the existing regional economic analysis. Despite such a rather critical view of regional economics, however, it is hard to be denied that the "economic" approach to regional problems was and has been the most significant one throughout the development of regional science. As a sub-discipline of economics, it has also developed its independent traditions and approaches that conform with the subject matter or perspective of economics. Location theory, that had been separately developed in Germany and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in the early 20th century, and the theory of

external economies External may refer to: * External (mathematics), a concept in abstract algebra * Externality, in economics, the cost or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit * Externals, a fictional group of X-Men antagon ...

from "localized industries" (as described in

Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall (26 July 1842 – 13 July 1924) was an English economist, and was one of the most influential economists of his time. His book '' Principles of Economics'' (1890) was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years. I ...

's '' Principles of Economics'' (1890)) formed the theoretical basis of regional economics, which has played a central role in regional science. As the preface and the contents of August Lösch's ''Die räumliche Ordnung der Wirtschaft'' (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1940; 2nd ed., 1944), whose English translation was made in 1954 by

W. H. Woglom W. may refer to: * SoHo (Australian TV channel) (previously W.), an Australian pay television channel * ''W.'' (film), a 2008 American biographical drama film based on the life of George W. Bush * "W.", the fifth track from Codeine's 1992 EP ''Bar ...

under the title of ''The Economics of Location'', consistently showed, economic approach to (industrial and consumer) locations has been central in both regional economics and regional science.

Harold Hotelling Harold Hotelling (; September 29, 1895 – December 26, 1973) was an American mathematical statistician and an influential economic theorist, known for Hotelling's law, Hotelling's lemma, and Hotelling's rule in economics, as well as Hotelling's T ...

's spatial approach to economic competition, which was introduced in '' The Economic Journal'' in 1929 under the title of "Stability in Competition," and

Edgar M. Hoover Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of ''wikt:en:ead, ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''Gar (spear), gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval per ...

's ''Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries'' (1937) and ''The Location of Economic Activity'' (1948) were United States scholars' representative contribution to theorizing and empirically verifying the regional problems from the viewpoint of economics. In his seminal paper, "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," ''Journal of Political Economy'', Paul Krugman (1991: 498) emphasized the importance of economic geography and regional economics for enriching economics concluding it with his statement of scholarly hope as follows: "Thus I hope that this paper will be a stimulus to a revival of research into regional economics and economic geography."

Definition

Vinod Dubey Vinod ( hi, विनोद , mr, विनोद , gu, વિનોદ) is a male given name used in India and Nepal, meaning "delight", "enjoyment", or "pleasure". People *Vinod Agarwal, Indian-American businessman and scientist *Vinod Agga ...

(1964) summarized the following four approaches to define regional economics. The first approach is "to deny the possibility of isolating such a discipline." According to Vinod Dubey (1964),

Harvey Stephen Perloff Harvey, Harveys or Harvey's may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Harvey (play), ''Harvey'' (play), a 1944 play by Mary Chase about a man befriended by an invisible anthropomorphic rabbit * Harvey Awards ("Harveys"), one of the most imp ...

, who co-authored ''State and Local Finance in the National Economy'' (with

Alvin Harvey Hansen Alvin Harvey Hansen (August 23, 1887 – June 6, 1975) was an American economist who taught at the University of Minnesota and was later a chair professor of economics at Harvard University. Often referred to as "the American John Maynard Keynes ...

) and ''Regions, Resources, and Economic Growth'' (with Edgar S. Dunn, Jr., Eric E. Lampard, and Richard F. Muth), denied the possibility for any break-up of regional studies or regional science into "parts parallel to the disciplines employed." The second approach is to conform with the definition of Lionel Charles Robbins (1932: 15), stated as "Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses," for the economic problems occurring in regions. The third approach is to define regional economics as a sub-discipline of economics that addresses spatial general equilibrium. This approach was emphasized by L. Lefeber and H. O. Nourse. The fourth approach is to define it as a sub-discipline of economics that addresses immobile resources. This view was supported by G. H. Borts (1960), J. L. Stein (1961), an
J. R. Meyer (1963)
In his ''Regional Economic Growth'' (1969), Horst Siebert viewed regional economics as the study of humans' economic behavior in space. Drawing from the definition of regional economics as the system of the scholarly answers to the question "What is where, and why--and so what?" in ''An Introduction to Regional Economics'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971; 3rd ed., 1984) by

and Frank Giarratanai, and from Dubey's (1964: 29) definition of regional economics as "the study of differentiation and interrelationships of areas in a universe of unevenly distributed and imperfectly mobile resources with particular emphasis in application on the planning of the social overhead capital investments to mitigate the social problems by these circumstances," it is definable as the study of the systems of how (much) and where to produce and redistribute what using scarce resources or public goods.

External links

Organizations

Note: The list below is to be updated.
American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association

Australia New Zealand Regional Science Association International Inc (ANZRSAI Inc)

Community and Regional Economics Network (CRENET)

European Regional Science Association

Mid-Continent Regional Science Association

* ttp://www.narsc.org North American Regional Science Council
Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization

* ttp://www.regionalscience.org Regional Science Association International
Regional Science Consortium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center
* Regional Studies Association
Southern Regional Science Association

Journals

Note: The list below is to be updated.
''Spatial Economic Analysis''

''Annals of Regional Science''

''Canadian Journal of Regional Science''
* ''

Growth and Change ''Growth and Change: A Journal of Urban and Regional Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal was established in 1970. Its current editors are John Carruthers (Cornell University), Natasha D ...

''
''Industrial Geographer''

''International Regional Science Review''

''Investigaciones Regionales'' (en español)

''Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy''

''Journal of Regional Science''

''Journal of Urban Economics''

''Papers in Regional Science''

''Regional Economies and Policies''

''Regional Science and Urban Economics''

''Regional Studies''

''Review of Regional Studies''

''Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies''

''Regional Science Policy & Practice''
{{Authority control Economic geography

Origins

Definition

See also

External links

Organizations

Journals