Skip Navigation



Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Advance Access published online on July 8, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn011
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
1/3/371    most recent
rsn011v3
rsn011v2
rsn011v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rodríguez-Pose, A.
Right arrow Articles by Crescenzi, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

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


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.