We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

Random graphs

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

/pdf/clusters-and-knowledge-local-buzz-global-pipelines-and-the-29bsuyvekg.pdf

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

Social Network Analysis

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

In this paper, we argue that a paradigmatic shift is occurring in economic geography toward a relational economic geography. This rests on three propositions. First, from a structural perspective economic actors are situated in contexts of social and institutional relations. Second, in dynamic perspective economic processes are path-dependent, constrained by history. Third, economic processes are contingent in that the agents’ strategies and actions are open-ended. Drawing on Storper’s holy trinity, we define four ions as the basis for analysis in economic geography: organization, evolution, innovation, and interaction. Therein, we employ a particular spatial perspective of economic processes using a geographical lens.

/pdf/toward-a-relational-economic-geography-3yptlon2nn.pdf

Toward a relational economic geography

An evolutionary perspective on economic geography requires a dynamic understanding of change in networks. This article explores theories of network evolution for their use in geography and develops the conceptual framework of geographical network trajectories. It specifically assesses how tie selection constitutes the evolutionary process of retention and variation in network structure and how geography affects these mechanisms. Finally, a typology of regional network formations is used to discuss opportunities for innovation in and across regions.

/pdf/economic-geography-and-the-evolution-of-networks-4h4w5pift3.pdf

Economic geography and the evolution of networks

This article analyzes the market of management consulting and identifies institutional and transactional uncertainty as its principal features. Based on these uncertainties, we argue that competition in this market takes place on entirely different grounds than in other business sectors. We suggest that the main drivers of competitiveness are neither price nor measurable quality, but rather experience-based trust and a mechanism we label ‘networked reputation.’ An embeddedness perspective is employed to develop the concept of networked reputation as an intermediate mechanism that complements the duality of system versus personal trust and accounts for firm growth. We reinterpret secondary data on the German consulting market, illustrate the significance of these mechanisms, and demonstrate how management consulting is situated in structures of social relations.

Bridging Uncertainty in Management Consulting: The Mechanisms of Trust and Networked Reputation

This paper develops a rigorous concept of institutions to investigate the interrelationships between institutional and economic change from the perspective of economic geography. We view institutions neither as behavioural regularities nor as organizations or rules, but conceive institutions as stabilizations of mutual expectations and correlated interaction. The paper discusses how economic interaction in space is shaped by existing institutions, how this leads to economic decisions and new rounds of action, and how their intended and unintended consequences impact or enact new/existing institutions. The paper explores three modes of institutional change – hysteresis, emergent change, and institutional entrepreneurship.

/pdf/institutional-change-in-economic-geography-582g2vb9sy.pdf

Institutional change in economic geography

PART I: FOUNDATIONS OF RELATIONAL THINKING PART II: RELATIONAL CLUSTERS OF KNOWLEDGE PART III: KNOWLEDGE CIRCULATION ACROSS TERRITORIES PART IV: TOWARD A RELATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY?

/pdf/the-relational-economy-geographies-of-knowing-and-learning-4g2upch726.pdf

Johannes Glückler

Papers

Toward a relational economic geography

Economic geography and the evolution of networks

Bridging Uncertainty in Management Consulting: The Mechanisms of Trust and Networked Reputation

Institutional change in economic geography

The Relational Economy: Geographies of Knowing and Learning