Clark University | Economic Geography Journal

Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, by Richard Florida
Tom Hutton, Page 335
Read Book Review

Services and Economic Development in the Asia-Pacific, edited by Peter W. Daniels and James W. Harrington
Hongmian Gong, Page 337
Read Book Review

Handbook of Research on Asian Business, edited by Henry Wai-chung Yeung
Yifei Sun, Page 339
Read Book Review

The Inside Story of China’s High-Tech Industry: Making Silicon Valley in Beijing, by Yu Zhou
Peilei Fan, Page 342
Read Book Review

Capital, Interrupted: Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India, by Vinay Gidwani
Kiran Asher, Page 345
Read Book Review

Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle, edited by Thomas A. Lyson, G. W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh
Carrie Breitbach, Page 347
Read Book Review

Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity, by Edward Webster, Rob Lambert, and Andries Bezuidenhout
Peter V Hall, Page 349
Read Book Review

The Internet Imaginaire, by Patrice Flichy
Andrew Murphy, Page 351
Read Book Review

Changing Places Through Women's Entrepreneurship, by Susan Hanson

Abstract: In this article, I focus on entrepreneurship as a gendered geographic process to examine how changes in people and place are linked. Although entrepreneurship is a process that is marked by deep stereotypical gender divisions, it is also one through which people can change the meaning of gender and the way in which gender is lived. In addition, entrepreneurship links people and place in a number of ways, most notably through networks of social relations in place. I discuss four geographic studies of women's entrepreneurship, each undertaken in a different country--Botswana, India, Peru, and the United States. These studies demonstrate that whereas entrepreneurship per se or access to microcredit alone is seldom sufficient to change the position of women or gender relations in a place, women are using entrepreneurship to change their lives and those of others and, in the process, are changing the places where they live. Key to this transformative process are programs of governmental and nongovernmental organizations and women's grassroots actions that are aimed at building women's skills, confidence, and business networks.

Key words: economic geography, gender, entrepreneurship, place, livelihoods.

Read Article

The Impact of Regional Age Structure on Entrepreneurship , by Werner Bönte, Oliver Falck, and Stephan Heblich

Abstract: Empirical studies based on individual data have found an inverse U-shaped relationship between age and the decision to start a business. Other studies have shown that becoming an entrepreneur is a regional event, with potential entrepreneurs benefiting from their local networks. This article links both strands of literature by introducing age-specific peer effects. Using changes in the age distribution of the population of western German regions over time, we found--in accordance with microlevel analyses--an inverse U-shaped relationship between the regional age structure and start-up activity in a region. Moreover, our findings suggest that the age-specific likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur changes with the size of the age cohort, pointing to the existence of age-specific peer effects.

Key words: demography, occupational choice, regional entrepreneurship, age-specific peer effects.

Read Article

Related Variety, Trade Linkages, and Regional Growth in Italy, by Ron Boschma and Simona Iammarino

Abstract: This article presents estimates of the impact of regional variety and trade linkages on regional economic growth by means of export and import data by Italian province (NUTS 3) and sector (three-digit) for the period 1995-2003. Our results show strong evidence that related variety contributes to regional economic growth. Thus, Italian regions that are well endowed with sectors that are complementary in terms of competences (i.e., that show related variety) perform better. The article also assesses the effects of the breadth and relatedness of international trade linkages on regional growth, since they may bring new and related variety to a region. Our analysis demonstrates that regional growth is not affected by simply being well connected to the outside world or having a high variety of knowledge flowing into the region. Rather, we found evidence of related extraregional knowledge sparking intersectoral learning across regions. When the cognitive proximity between the extraregional knowledge and the knowledge base of a region is neither too small nor too large, real learning opportunities are present, and the external knowledge contributes to growth in regional employment.

Key words: related variety, agglomeration economies, trade linkages, regional growth, Italy.

Read Article

The Expansion of the Finance Industry and Its Impact on the Economy: A Territorial Approach Based on Swiss Pension Funds, by José Corpataux, Olivier Crevoisier, and Thierry Theurillat

Abstract: A new economic geography of finance is emerging, and the current "financialization" of contemporary economies has contributed greatly to the reshaping of the economic landscape. How can these changes be understood and interpreted, especially from a territorial point of view? There are two contradictory economic theories regarding the tangible effects of the rise of the finance industry. According to neoclassical financial theorists, the finance industry's success is based on its positive effects on the real economy through its capacity to allocate financial resources efficiently. An alternative approach, adopted here, posits that finance does not merely mirror the real economy and that the financial economy, far from being a simple instrument for the allocation of capital, has its own autonomy, its own logic of development and expansion. A series of complex, and sometimes contradictory, connections link financial markets and the real economy, and there are some tensions between them, calling into question the coherence of the regional and national economies that follow from them. Moreover, the territorial approach shows how the mobility/liquidity of capital and the changing dimensions of new regions and countries are central to the finance industry's functioning. This article builds an understanding of the financial system through the lens of pension funds and highlights the impact of such a system on the real economy and its geography.

Key words: finance industry, pension funds, regions, Switzerland.

Read Article

CONTENTS

Editorial

Journal Articles

BOOK REVIEWS

ABSTRACTS

e-mail alerts