World Bank
World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4120902 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark R Montgomery (0000-0002-9612-6446, Stony Brook University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 197-200 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Population and Development Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2009.00266.x |
| OpenAlex | W4255460568 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 5 |
Economic development is both a cause and a consequence of urbanization.The sectoral effects through which the association arises, well explicated by Kelley and Williamson (1984a,b) among others, mainly concern how exogenously occurring income growth (acting via Engel's Law) and technological change encourage urbanization.But until now the literature has lacked an accessible account of the other direction of causation, by which urbanization propels economic growth.World Development Report 2009 provides that account in an elegant and compelling manner.Its authors believe that the core ideas have not yet been given a hearing, and it is perhaps understandable that in striving to ensure that these ideas are fully appreciated, they occasionally give in to over-statement and allow theory to outrun evidence.This is a volume that is meant to start a conversation, even to provoke, and because its thesis runs counter to the conventional wisdom, it will probably succeed in doing so where a more cautious academic treatment might have failed.The essence of the WDR's argument is that it is efficient, both in the medium and the long term, for economic production to be spatially concentrated in what initially would be a small set of cities and towns.Spatially clustered firms benefit in multiple ways: they are able to exploit economies of scale, enjoy cost savings from proximity to input suppliers and customers, take advantage of the specialization that is facilitated by local market size and diversity, and identify and test new modes of production, pricing, and management.These agglomeration economies lay the foundation for economy-wide technological change and endogenous economic growth.In the view of the report's authors, governments should not resist spatial concentration by seeking to target investment and policy attention to the lagging areas of their countries, but rather should adopt a neutral stance on where development takes place, patiently waiting to make judicious investments in transport and communication, so that disadvantaged areas become connected to the sites of growth.As the process unfolds, a system of cities and towns evolves in which the largest places, facing rising land rents, eventually specialize in high-end business services, manufacturing becomes concentrated in a second tier of cities and the countryside, and a myriad of smaller urban centers provide services and markets for their surrounding rural populations.Spatial disparities in living standards will at first widen and then (over a period of decades) begin to converge as more regions acquire the means to participate.To facilitate the transformation, migration should not be discouraged or artificially redirected; left unhindered, it allows households located in lagging regions to benefit from the economic growth occurring elsewhere.Developing-country governments should extend basic education and health services as widely as possible, so that all citizens have the human capital advantages they need to function as full participants
Citation · Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Library science · Political science · Population · Sociology · Urbanization · Computer Science · Demography · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · History · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,18 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2010 (2) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |