New economic geography: A guide to transport analysis

Miren Lafourcade and Jacques Thisse

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Abstract: The paper surveys the main contributions of new economic geography from the point of view of transport analysis. It shows that decreasing transport costs is likely to exacerbate regional disparities. However, very low transport costs should foster a more balanced distribution for economic activities across space. Thus, the spatial curve of development, which relates the degree of spatial concentration to the level of transport costs, would be bell-shaped. The paper also provides a detailed discussion of the main determinants of transport costs, which remain fairly large in most countries. It concludes with a discussion of some policy implications.

Keywords: économie géographique; coûts de transport; aménagement du territoire; economic geography; transport costs; regional disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo and nep-ure
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00586878v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

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Working Paper: New economic geography: A guide to transport analysis (2008)
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