Oedzge Atzema, Ton van Rietbergen, Jan Lambooy and Sjef van Hoof - Dynamics in economic geography

1 Application possibilities for economic geography

to attract new businesses to the region or expand existing ones. In addition, access to these regions was improved by constructing roads and railways. In other words, the regional geography was adjusted to stimulate the economy and boost prosperity. So there was an economic geography application in gov ernment policy.

Figure 1.2 David S. Landes’ bestseller The World and Poverty of Nations

Published in 1998, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by historian David Landes marked the launching of the rehabilitation of economic geography in the social sciences in the United States. Landes felt that with its emphasis on the unequal distribution of natural resources and climatic limitations, geog raphy had wrongly become a forgotten discipline. He gave the example of a community’s struggle against the sea as a possible basis for economic welfare. However, due to widespread illness, tropical climates tended to lower produc tivity and thus constituted a hindrance to development. Although they were grateful to Landes for putting geographic factors back on the agenda, many geographers also felt he went too far, as his ideas reminded them too much of the earlier determinism. This said, Landes undoubtedly did much to generate interest in economic geography. While Landes emphasized the importance of the geography variable to explain differences in welfare levels, economic geographers and historians generally concentrated on how societies were organized in terms of their legal system,

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