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Geographical Economics: A Historical Perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2015

Jacques-François Thisse
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Summary

This paper provides a bird-eye overview of the history of spatial economic theory. It is organized around three main ideas (and authors): (i) land use and urban economics (Thünen), (ii) the nature of competition across space (Hotelling), and (iii) new economic geography and the emergence of economic agglomerations (Krugman).

Cet article présente un survol de l'histoire de la théorie économique spatiale. Il est organisé autour de trois thèmes et de trois auteurs: (1) l'utilisation du sol et l'économie urbaine (Thünen), (2) la nature de la concurrence dans une économie spatialisée (Hotelling) et (3) la nouvelle économie géographique et l'émergence des agglomérations économiques (Krugman).

Keywords

urban economicsspatial competitioneconomic geographyB10B20B40F20L13R12R30économie urbaineéconomie géographique et concurrence spatialeB10B20B40F20L13R12R30
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 77 , Issue 2-3 , September 2011 , pp. 141 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 2011 

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Footnotes

**

CORE, Université catholique de Louvain and CEPR

*

This paper is an extended version of the chapter devoted to economic geography and prepared for the Handbook of the History of Economic Analysis edited by Gilbert Faccarello and Heinz D. Kurz. I thank the editors, Luisito Bertinelli, Steven Brakman, Michel de Vroey, and Erik Schokkaert for their comments and suggestions. Above all, I am grateful to my friend Masahisa Fujita with whom I have discussed many of the ideas surveyed in this paper.

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