New Economic Geography

Abstract

Abstract New economic geography is a term used in two ways in the international literature. First, and foremost, it is used to refer to the work done by Paul Krugman and other economists, who developed abstract models to explain spatial concentration and specializations leading to persistent regional economic disparities. Their main contribution has been to put geography back on the map of economists. According to economic geographers, however, geographical economics has not taken geography seriously enough. This criticism mainly stems from scholars who have themselves been active in a strand of literature in economic geography, which, rather confusingly, has also been called new economic geography or the cultural turn in economic geography. The evolutionary economic geography paradigm provides solutions to some of the shortcomings of both strands of research going on in new economic geography.