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New Economic Geography After Thirty Years

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Handbook of Regional Science

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Abstract

In this chapter we briefly discuss how the New Economic Geography literature follows from and builds on international trade theory. We then turn to the main empirical implications of New Economic Geography. We highlight that the main problem with empirical applications of New Economic Geography is that a single test of the implications of the model is illusive because of the structure of the model. As a result, the main consequences of the model are usually tested separately. Some of the implications of the model are also consistent with other models, notably models in urban economics. We stress therefore, that despite an initial surge in empirical research inspired by New Economic Geography as well as improved methods, the empirical evidence still remains rather sketchy. Moreover, up to now policy advise based on New Economic Geography is mostly qualitative.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is partially based on earlier work by the authors (corresponding Author: Charles van Marrewijk). We do not give detailed references to our own work but readers interested in further details can consult our book on urban and geographical economics (Brakman et al. 2019) for more extensive and detailed discussions and references, see in particular chapters 7, 8, and 9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen

  2. Utrecht University School of Economics, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Charles van Marrewijk

Authors
  1. Steven Brakman
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  2. Harry Garretsen
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  3. Charles van Marrewijk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven Brakman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria

    Manfred M. Fischer

  2. and Business Administration Department of Spatial Economics, Free University Faculty of Economics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter Nijkamp

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Brakman, S., Garretsen, H., van Marrewijk, C. (2019). New Economic Geography After Thirty Years. In: Fischer, M., Nijkamp, P. (eds) Handbook of Regional Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36203-3_39-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36203-3_39-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36203-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36203-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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