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Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Advance Access published online on August 21, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn018
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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 [View the issue table of contents]

The rise of the mega-region

Richard Floridaa, Tim Guldenb and Charlotta Mellanderc

a Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E6, Canada. florida{at}rotman.utoronto.ca
b Center for International and Security Studies, University of Maryland School of Public Policy, 4113 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 20742, USA. tgulden{at}umd.edu
c Prosperity Institute of Scandinavia, Jönköping International Business School, PO Box 1026, 55111 Jönköping, Sweden. charlotta.mellander{at}ihh.hj.se


  Abstract

This paper develops new data on mega-regions. It takes issue with theories of globalization which argue that global economic activity is being more widely decentralized—‘the world is flat’. We use a global dataset of night-time light emissions to produce an objectively consistent set of mega-regions for the globe. We draw on high-resolution population data to estimate the population of each of these regions. We then process the light data in combination with national gross domestic product (GDP) to produce rough but useful regional estimates of economic activity. We also present estimates of technological and scientific innovation.

Keywords: mega-region, globalization, urbanization, night-time lights

Received on October 31, 2007. Accepted on July 1, 2008.

JEL classification:: O18, R10


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