Schema della sezione

  • Introduction to Economic Geography

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    Economic Geography represents the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the Earth. 

    In today’s highly competitive economy, many companies, firms and organizations are aware that understanding geography, possibly through mapping, can represent a competitive strategic advantage. Significant cost savings and profit opportunities can result from the understanding of the geographic context of activities such as sales and marketing, distribution and logistics, as well as competitor activity. 

    The course examines the way in which individuals and enterprises organize their economic activities in space and the extent to which society recognizes the socio-economic impacts of such activities across space and uses its institutions to influence these interdependencies and impacts.

    The course is focused on how geographic and economic conditions affect the products, industries, commerce and resources in a variety of regions. The course tackles the concepts, theories, and methodologies used by geographers to analyze economic change. 

    An overview of the course, of the resources available and textbook is provided.

  • 1 - Geography and Economic Geography

    Geography and Economic Geography

    Geography (today) is the science of interpretation of the organized space

    It studies the issues connected to:

    1) Localisation (= precise spatial position of objects within a particular area of Hearth’s surface)

    2) Human – environment relationship

    3) Regions and identification of the distinctive characters of particular partitions of space


    Role of geography. Supply:

    1) Positional information on the exact position of events; 

    2) Environmental information on quality of particular areas;

    3) Optimization = finding the ‘best’ position for things and the ‘best’ use of areas

    Economic Geography focuses on:

    1) the knowledge of the geographical space (as an index of human and natural evolutions) and on the management of space (as an index of the social, political and economical evolutions)

    Also it focuses on: 

    2) the processes of management of production of goods and services in cities and space (more in general).

    Anderson W. P. (2012)

    Economic geographers study and attempt to explain the spatial configuration of economic activities, including the production of goods and services, their transfer from one economic agent to another and their transformation into utility by consumers. The spatial configuration, which includes both the pattern of activities on the map and the relationships between activities occurring in different places, is the outcome of a vast number of distinct but interrelated decisions made by firms, households, governments and a variety of other private and public institutions. 


    Spatial interaction

    the easiest way to understand the relations between different places.

    The non-availability of a product in one place is a sufficient condition to generate a movement towards another place where it is available

    The presence of two or more places specialized in the production of different goods / services will set an interaction between them



  • 2 – Location theories: the Von Thunen Model

    This section deals with the use of models in Economic Geography and particularly Location Theories.

    Models are adapted to different kinds of activities. 

    The starting points are similar and goes from simplified models to more complex ones.

    Common Hypothesis – generally a common starting point for the different models:

    1. Homogeneity and isotropy of space
      (no differences in morphology of space; no transport asymmetries; ecc.)
    2. Fertility of land is homogeneous – if a rent exists,  it depends on transport costs based on distance
    3. Perfect competition (same price throughout the market; freedom of movements of factors of production; no transport costs)

    The father of location theory is renown as John Heinrich Von Thunen (Jever, Oldemburg – East Germany 1783 - 1850). In 1826 he wrote ‘The isolated state’ in which he stated that differences in the cost of producing agricultural products depended on the differences in land location and therefore on the distance of the producing areas to the market.

    Von Thunen’s theory opposed David Ricardo’s one in which differences in the cost of producing agricultural products result from utilization of land of different quality.

    In 1826 he wrote "The isolated state" in which he studied the  effects of a unique urban central market on the distribution of cultivations in a homogeneous space.

    Von Thunen circular model was then used later as the basis for an exam on urban rent in Urban Geography



  • 3 – Location theories: Central Place Theory

    Systems of cities - Hierarchies. The central place theory

    The central place theory deals with the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system. After having analyzed the spatial distribution of agricultural activities (Von Thunen model) and industries (Weber), central place theory focuses on cities as market places and therefore better respond to the logic of the service sector.

    The Central Place Theory started with a German geographer, Walter Christaller (1933), who analyzed the spatial distribution of centres in Southern Germany, trying to understand the evolution of urban settlements and their spacing in relation to each other. In particular he looked for some ‘rules’ determining size, number and distribution of towns. His ideal model foreseen the spacing of cities and their market areas in regular patterns, showing hexagonal structures and different levels.  Of course we do not spot hexagons drawn on the ground nor the market areas appear regular ones.  However Christaller’s theory was interesting as he combined different elements together.

    Basic Central Place Model

    A Hierarchy of Central Places

    Christaller:

    Christaller’s Central Place Model

    -  considered some extremely simplified hypotheses concerning space as already seen in other location theories (i.e., homogeneous space, even distribution of resources and population, etc.).

    - Introduced the concept of hierarchy in (urban) centres. That means that some centres can be higher in a hierarchical rank by providing goods and services rarer than those offered by other centres. Using a simplifying example, every municipality holds a primary school that therefore serves a limited space (a neighborhood) while few municipalities host universities, that consequently attract people from a wider distance

    - consider economic elements into a geographical framework.  In particular, as many elements are (theoretically) constant in his basic assumptions, the geographical distance (or the cost for covering the geographical distance) can be expressed as a price of the good that a consumers search for. In that sense the ‘traditional’ micro-economical demand curve can be rotated and ‘spatialised’ and therefore represented in the geographical space.

    Christaller’s Theory was quite static and did not allow to combine different urban functions. However the theory was modified by other authors to include more realistic situations.

    The Principles of Central Place Theory 

    The Marketing Principle  

    The Transportation Principle

    The Administrative Principle


    Loesch.

    The Modification of August Lösch

    Loesch in particular modified the central place theory in order to allow multiple functions to be present in one place. That lead to specifying the conditions for developing the idea of a metropolitan area, concentrating different functions and activities and acting as an element of attraction for the surrounding area.  Loesch’s Theory was focused on the ‘city effect’ or the fact that cities are something different than just ‘settlements’ and that by concentrating functions will make them more important than surrounding centres.

    Isard.

    Isard’s Modifications

    Isard introduced further modifications to the Central Place Theory, ‘distorting’ the regularity of hexagonal patterns with the introduction of a uneven distribution of population and therefore differentiated population densities (obviously in urban areas) and a different ‘spiderweb’ network drawn by major transport infrastructures connecting cities.

    References

    Christaller, Walter. Die zentralen Orte in Suddeutschland. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1933. (Translated (in part), by Charlisle W. Baskin, as Central Places in Southern Germany. Prentice Hall, 1966.

    Christaller, Walter, How I discovered the Theory of Central Places: A Report about the Origin of Central Places. in: English, P. W. and R. C. Mayfield, eds., Man Space and Environment. Oxford Univ. Press, 1972, pp.601–610.

    Berry, Brian J. L. and Chauncy D. Harris, Walter Christaller: An Appreciation, Geographical Review LX (1), 1970, pp.116–9.

    Heilbrun, James. Urban Economics and Public Policy, 3rd Edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987

    Von Boventer, Edwin. Walter Christaller's Central Places and Peripheral Areas: The Central Place Theory in Retrospect, Journal of Regional Science. Vol.9, 1969, 117–24.

    Preston, R. E., The Dynamic Component of Christaller's Central Place Theory and the Theme of Change in his Research, The Canadian Geographer, vol.27, 1983, pp.4–16.

    Losch, August, The Nature of Economic Regions, Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1, July 1938, pp. 71–78.


  • 4 - Geography of Transport

    Transport and location

    The transport system can be conceptualized as the set of relationships between nodes, networks and the demand. These relationships involve locations spatially expressing this demand, flows between them and infrastructures designed to handle these flows. All the components of a transport system are designed to facilitate the movements of passengers, freight and information, either as separate or joint components.

    Demand. A derived function for the movement of people, freight and information for a variety of socioeconomic activities.
    Nodes. Where movements are originating, ending and transiting (intermediacy); points of entry or exit in a transport system. They vary according to the geographical scale being considered ranging from local nodes (such as a subway station) to global nodes (such as port or airport terminals).
    Networks. Composed of a set of linkages expressing the connectivity between places and the capacity to handle passenger or cargo volumes.
    Locations. Nodes where demand is expressed as an origin, destination or point of transit. The level of spatial accumulation of socioeconomic activities (production and consumption) jointly defines demand and where this demand is taking place.
    Flows. The amount of traffic over a network composed of nodes and linkages. This is jointly a function of the demand and the capacity of the linkages to support them.
    Infrastructures. The conveyances such as roads and terminals expressing the physical reality of a network and designed to handle a demand with specific volume and frequency characteristics. Facilities enabling access to a network are jointly characterized by their centrality and the linkages that radiate from them.

    Simplified hypotheses on transport: transport costs proportional to distance:
    Weber (minimum transport cost)
    Von Thunen (location rent)
    Real world: transport costs hold a fixed loading component, a fixed unloading component and costs varying in a less than proportional way to travel’s length.
    Economies of scale
    Different weight of distace for different transport modes:
    Road 
    Railway 
    Water/Air

  • 5 - Industry and space

    Location of industrial activities

    Industrialization is an essential aspects of World Economic Growth
    I industrial revolution
    England (XVIII – start XIX Century ).
    Steam machine (James Watt, 1783).
    Coale; iron; textiles
    New organization of labour (it substitute the ‘makers’ model)
    Countryside – City movements and migrations
    II industrial revolution
    End XIX Century -  Beginining of XX century
    Coal -> Oil, hidroelectrig energy
    New industries, new locations, new markets, new products. Series production. Fordism
    III industrial revolution
    End of XX century – To-date
    Hi tech: electronics, robotics, telecommunication, bio-tech

    Spatial distribution and location of industries:
    Inserting a manufacturing firm in a given territory is important in terms of the spatial reorganization of:
    Demographic component; 
    Urban structure; 
    Other economic activities;
    Network of flows and traffic; 
    Political- social rules.
    Industrial geography: where and why industries in a given territory
    => location as a process of setting and industry. It is important to examine:
    Factors of industrial location;
    ‘geography’ of production factors;
    Location theory

    Industry clusters (Industrial districts)
    Industry clusters are geographic concentrations of competing, complementary, or interdependent firms and industries that do business with each other and/or have common needs for talent, technology, and  infrastructure. 
    The firms included in the cluster may be both competitive and cooperative. They may compete directly with some members of the cluster, purchase inputs from other cluster members, and rely on the services of other cluster firms in the operation of their business.
    Industry clusters are dynamic entities. They may change as the industries within them change or as external conditions change
    An important characteristic of clusters is that they are centered on firms that sell outside the local, state, or even national market
    Clusters may include government, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and other infrastructure and service providers whose presence is key to the strength of the cluster.
    An industry cluster is an interconnected group of industries and firms. It differs from trade associations, which may have a narrower membership and focus. 
    A trade association, for example, may include the  members of a single industry and focus entirely on lobbying. By contrast clusters are agglomerations of  regional industries and interdependent firms that are key to the success of the industry in the state. 
    Organized industry clusters contribute broadly to the well-being of the region by addressing workforce recruitment and training issues, developing needed infrastructure, and establishing research and training  programs at universities and technical colleges, to name a few.

    Marshall (1920) identified the firm’s external economies, although internal to the district, the basic foundations' of the distrcts’ (or local labor systems)  competitiveness.. 
    The spatial aggregation of several firms, each one operating in full technical and organizational efficiency, related in terms of production and distribution processes, determines a particular efficency condition for the overall economic system. 
    Economical advantages:
    Reduction of production costs; 
    Reduction of transaction costs; 
    Innovative and incremental dynamics settings. 
    The environment allows an organization based on a non-hierarchical order. The spontaneous and self propelling  character in producing external economies seems to originate from evolutionary stability and by the convergence of a set of socio-economical, institutional and manufacturing.


  • 6 - Location theories: Industrial location

    Location theory

    Weber’s Theory of industrial location 
    Space is characterized by:
    Uniform interest rate;
    Uniform production costs, wages, rents;
    Uniform and proportional to distance unitary transport costs;
    Resources consisting of:
    Localized materials (mine resources)
    Ubiquitous materials (water)
    Losing weight materials (raw material’s weight is only partially reflected into the final product)
    Net materials (raw material’s weight is totally reflected into the final product)
    The model is aimed at identifying the place where to locate a firm / plant minimizing costs related to places
    =>
    Raw material places
    Energy places
    Market / consumption places

  • 7 - Urban Analysis

    Urban Geography

    Our society is an urbanized society.

    The world as we know it is urban and getting increasingly urbanized.

    Since 1950, the world urban population has more than doubled. In 1999, half of the world’s population of 6 billions lived in urban areas. 75% were in developing economies. The majority of economic activities are taking place in cities and they represent dominant attributes of the human landscape.

    Cities are difficult to define. A common element is represented by concentration.

    Different criteria could be considered:

    Topographic – construction (= concentration of buildings)

    Demographic (= concentration of inhabitants) - I.e., urban population in centres > 2.000 inhabitants

    Economic (= concentration of activities)

    Quantity and quality of concentration: 
    different activities and different from agriculture, extra-urban demand

     

    Functional definition:

    Aggregation of people to better realise some activities
    (activity = a function of the city);

    Cities as rare, non ubiquitous in the geographical space produce functions over a service  area


    • 7 - Urban Analysis 2018 - 2019 File PPTX
    • How megacities are changing the map of the world | Parag Khanna URL

      "I want you to reimagine how life is organized on earth," says global strategist Parag Khanna. As our expanding cities grow ever more connected through transportation, energy and communications networks, we evolve from geography to what he calls "connectography." This emerging global network civilization holds the promise of reducing pollution and inequality -- and even overcoming geopolitical rivalries. In this talk, Khanna asks us to embrace a new maxim for the future: "Connectivity is destiny."


      Geopolitical futurist Parag Khanna foresees a world in which megacities, supply chains and connective technologies redraw the map away from states and borders.

  • 8 - Geography of Population

    Population Geography


    Population Geography is concerned by the spatial aspects of population:

    1- Simple description of the location of the population.

    2- Explanation of its spatial pattern and distribution.

    3- Geographical analysis (processes such as urbanization and migration).

    The 20th Century experienced a huge growth of the world’s population, almost exponential from the 1920s until today. Population was multiplied by three and around 80-85 million persons are added each year.

    60 million new urbanites are added per year, with an urban population is now 2.6 billion, of which 1.7 billions are in developing countries. More than 65% of the global population is thus living in developing economies.

    The Explosion of the World’s Population.

     Living conditions are improving in a number of areas, notably in newly industrialized economies. Insufficient to improve the welfare of the bulk of the world’s population.  Paradox in developing countries: Population growth monitoring is essential in these areas. They have the least resources available to undertake such a process.


    • 8 - Geography of Population File PPTX
    • Global Population Growth Box by Box URL

      The world's population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years -- and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes


      Hans Rosling
      Global health expert; data visionary
       gapminder.org

    • The Population Bomb - NY Times URL

      In bold documentary style, Retro Report looks back at the major stories that shaped the world using fresh interviews, analysis and compelling archival footage. Produced by Retro Report for The New York Times.

  • 9 - GIS and Geospatial Technologies

    Geographic Information and the Geospatial technologies 


    We live in space and surrounded by geography and geographical features.  “Almost everything that happens, happens somewhere. Knowing where something happens is critically important” (Goodchild et al., 2001).

    Geographic Information is information concerning places on the Earth’s surface, and the knowledge about where something is and – in reverse - about what is at a given location.

    Geographic Information can be very detailed (i.e., information about the location of all buildings in a city; information about individual trees in a forest) or very coarse (climate of a large region; population density of an entire country).

    In to-date world, also geographical elements can be organized and managed digitally, that means data are geographic, therefore holding a position on (or above or under) the Earth.

    Geospatial technologies were developed to acquire, manage, display, represent, analyse geographical data – and also for making maps, these including dynamic ones.

    In particular three main geospatial technologies are used for managing Geographic Information:

    GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). GPS (Global Positioning System) is one of the examples. GNSS use satellites to determine the position of a receiver on (or above) the Earth.  Such position can be expressed as geographical coordinates and represented as a point on a (also digital) map.

    Remote Sensing. It deals with acquiring (digital) data from a remote location, or data taken without being in direct contact. Also a picture of you taken by your classmate deals with soma date taken without being in direct contact you. In Remote Sensing, sensors (cameras, using visible light, ultraviolet, radar signals, laser, etc.) are mounted on vehicles like satellites, airplanes, helicopters, UAV, etc. to acquire data of the Earth’s surface (or of features above the Earth’s surface as the atmosphere). These data are in the form of satellite images, where each pixel holds a geographical coordinate and a value that can be mapped.

    GIS (Geographical Information Systems) is an information system that allows: collecting, modelling, handling; retrieving; analyzing geographically referred (georeferenced) data.

    Two views of a GIS: “A GIS is a set of tools to collect, store, retrieve, transform, display spatial data from the real world for particular purposes” (Burrough e McDonnell, 1998)

    “A GIS is a database in which the most of data has a spatial index, and on which procedures can be executed to answer requests and queries on spatial entities in the database.” (Smith et al., 1987)

     Geographical data can be raster (as those from Remote sensing: digital images) and vector (points, lines and polygons: the restaurants, the streets and lakes/municipalities in your google maps / blackberry maps / bing maps / apple maps, etc.). Data can be organized in layers (as transparencies with different objects drawn on them and put one on top of each other on an overhead projector).

    The evolution of geospatial technologies

    Geospatial technologies has evolved and are to-date available on standard pc and laptops in the form of traditional GIS software packages or available in other forms: Virtual Globes (like Google Earth), Web mapping applications (like the recent Google Maps Engine) or apps for smartphones and tablets (like Viewranger or other geocaching / training applications as Runtastic, Endomondo,  etc.).

    Geospatial technologies evolved also thanks to the widespread use of mobile devices and the Internet. So also ‘geography goes social’ as people produce and share data and information with a geographic component! Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare , Google use social (geographical) data to target advertising and for users’ profiling. The geospatial market seems having overcome the videogames market and covering 1/3 of airline industry value.

    In the Web 2.0 logic (A Web 2.0 site may allow users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social mediadialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, and mashups. From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) Users can also produce their geographical data thanks to GPS-fitted portable devices and manage them in GIS packages or also on Web mapping applications (on-line GIS) or virtual globes. 



  • Exam Test

    Following are some notes concerning the Exam Test. 

    Please read through them in order to have some suggestions on how to tackle the exam test during the test day.

    The test is organized on:

    5 multiple choices, worth 3 points each. 1 correct answer = 3 points; 1 wrong answer = 0 points

    3 open questions, worth 5 points each. values vary from 0 to 5 according to: correctedness of the content; organization of the answer; presence of graphs, formulas or elements capable of allowing the reader to fully understand; real examples.


    Please note that in the next set of texts for the Academic Year 2018/2019 the weight of the open questions could change in order to reduce the 0-3 range. 


    With reference to the Open Questions please do note the following.

    Question 8 is ALWAYS an open-open question, that is you can gain 5 points from the test with a relative ease. Please do note that the open question can be related also to additional materials not explicetly tackled in class (please see the documents uploaded and references - links to videos, etc.  -  in the different sections of the Moodle platform, that are always part of the programme).

    In tackling the open question you should:

    - state a brief introduction on the topic

    - argument your answer

    - provide examples

    As a general rule, please note that replying to an exam test is not a conversation at the bar and therefore a minimum standard of precision and thoroughness is needed. 

    Please note that the open questions (6 and 7) are mainly focused on models for which a more formal representation and explanation is required. 

    Questions (both multiple choices and open questions) are based on all the topics tackled in class.

    As mentioned in class, the Exam test is thought for evaluating the understanding of the course content. An oral examination is foreseen after the written test, after that the marks can be registered. However, the student can choose to accept the marks from the written test and register those marks.