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Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Advance Access originally published online on July 8, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2008 1(3):371-388; doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn011
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society issue: The World is not Flat; Putting Globalisation in its Place [View the issue table of contents]

Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity

Andrés Rodríguez-Posea and Riccardo Crescenzib

a Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. a.rodriguez-pose{at}lse.ac.uk
b Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence, Italy and Dipartimento di Economia, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy. riccardo.crescenzi{at}EUI.eu


  Abstract

Thomas Friedman (2005, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) argues that the expansion of trade, the internationalization of firms, the galloping process of outsourcing and the possibility of networking are creating a ‘flat world’: a level playing field where individuals are empowered and better off. This paper challenges this view of the world by arguing that not all territories have the same capacity to maximize the benefits and opportunities and minimize the risks linked to globalization. Numerous forces are coalescing in order to provoke the emergence of urban ‘mountains’ where wealth, economic activity and innovative capacity agglomerate. The interactions of these forces in the close geographical proximity of large urban areas give shape to a much more complex geography of the world economy.

Keywords: globalization, agglomeration, cities, geographical proximity, endogenous growth, new economic geography

Received on November 21, 2007. Accepted on April 21, 2008.

JEL Classifications: O18, R10, R12, R30


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