Thepaperexplainsthecommonalitiesanddifferencesbetweenneoclassical, institutional and evolutionary approaches that have been influential in economic geography during the last couple of decades. By separating the three approaches in termsoftheoretical content and researchmethodology, wecanappreciateboththecommonalitiesanddifferencesbetweenthethree approaches. It is also apparent that innovative theorizing currently occurs at the interface between neoclassical and evolutionary theory (especially in modelling) and at the interface between institutional and evolutionary theory (especially in ‘appreciative theorizing’). Taken together, we argue thatEvolutionaryEconomicGeographyisanemergingparadigmineconomic geography, yet does so without isolating itself from developments in other theoretical approaches.

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Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? Towards an evolutionary economic geography

We propose a clarification of the notion of a soft budget constraint, a concept widely used in the analysis of socialist, transitional, and market economies. Our interpretation is broad enough to embrace most existing approaches to soft budget constraint phenomena and provides a classification of their causes and consequences. In light of this interpretation, we then review the theoretical literature on the subject and compare it with those on other dynamic commitment problems in economics.

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Understanding the Soft Budget Constraint

Quasi-markets and social policy

The Oxford handbook of economic geography.

Regional inequality is one of the major subjects of research on China, and is a major concern to the Chinese government. This article reviews the copious research on regional inequality in China. It is proposed that recent research has significantly improved our understanding of regional inequality but that problems still exist. It is also argued that multiscale studies and investigations of the various mechanisms that affect inequality will further improve future research findings.

Regional Inequality in China

Based on the urban experience of the Soviet Union, this article explores the value of the so-called priority approach for understanding the mechanisms that contributed to the creation of the spatial structure of the Soviet/socialist city. The changes in priority status that the various urban functions were subject to are highlighted. It is then proposed that these variations were instrumental in the formation of the internal functioning and social differentiation of the Soviet/socialist city and, to the extent that the pre-1991 urban fabric persists, of its post-Soviet successor. Finally, the authors propose a new model of the development of the Soviet/socialist city, fusing the priority approach with an extensive survey of previous scholarly work within the field.

Intra-urban landscapes of priority : the Soviet legacy

Extending previous work on urbanisation under central planning, this paper sets out from the economics of shortage to develop a model of urban growth in socialist societies. Implying a focus on the...

Shortage, Priority and Urban Growth: Towards a Theory of Urbanisation under Central Planning

The effect of the liberalization of trade on the spatial concentration of economic activities is not straightforward. It has been widely argued that protectionism increases spatial concentration as firms locate close to the main domestic markets. However, it has also been argued that an expansion of international trade primarily favors existing industrial centers and therefore leads to increased regional inequalities. Against the background of ongoing debates in both mainstream economics and in geography, we examine the spatial concentration of manufacturing in Indonesia between 1980 and 1996, a period when Indonesia substantially liberalized its trade regime. The high concentration did not decrease during this period, and establishments that engaged in international trade were actually comparably concentrated. We discuss some possible explanations for the spatial concentration in Indonesia and conclude that a host of factors may affect the outcome of trade liberalizations. In particular, the spat...

/pdf/trade-liberalization-and-the-geography-of-production-5ctpxkx65x.pdf

Trade Liberalization and the Geography of Production: Agglomeration, Concentration, and Dispersal in Indonesia's Manufacturing Industry

Social or public housing is an important component of the housing supply in most European countries. Nowhere, however, has the notion of social housing been taken as far as in the countries that fo ...

Housing allocation under socialism : the Soviet case revisited

Standard models and theories of internal migration and urban growth in Estonia have been developed. However there remained a lack of statistical wherewithal to conduct the required kind of analysis. For instance certain categories of migration are likely to have been underreported and it is clear that existing rules and regulations on how to report those moves that were registered were not always observed. This could be attributed to the fact that existing statistics may fail to account for the process they purposely capture. To illustrate the authors report the results of a study of migration patterns in post-Soviet Estonia with a view of identifying the consequences of a change in reporting regulations and practices. To this end a survey of individual migration histories was conducted in 1997. Overall findings suggest that post-Soviet migration data are slightly improved in comparison with their Soviet-era predecessors: different but still deficient. It turns out that net domestic migratory flows are the reverse of what official statistics on registered residents suggest. The contrasts between the survey returns and the officially reported statistics are outlined including resources of divergence. As the findings indicate that something is distinct from that suggested by the compilations of the Estonian Statistical Office is indeed taking place this study provide some inputs for a more thorough understanding of how migratory flows and urbanization processes are transformed during the transition period itself.

Örjan Sjöberg

Papers

Intra-urban landscapes of priority : the Soviet legacy

Shortage, Priority and Urban Growth: Towards a Theory of Urbanisation under Central Planning

Trade Liberalization and the Geography of Production: Agglomeration, Concentration, and Dispersal in Indonesia's Manufacturing Industry

Housing allocation under socialism : the Soviet case revisited

Transitional statistics: internal migration and urban growth in post-Soviet Estonia.