PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2013, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (5): 788-796.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2013.05.010

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Evolutionary economic geography: The second bridge between economics and geography

YAN Yingen1, AN Husen2   

  1. 1. The Center for Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development of Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China;
    2. The School of Economics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
  • Received:2012-09-01 Revised:2013-01-01 Online:2013-05-25 Published:2013-05-25

Abstract: For a long time, there have been few exchanges between economics and geography. The lack of spatial dimension in economics is so common that economists could not discard such an assumption as constant return. In this paper, we explained why geography and economics neglected each other and in which field the two disciplines may cooperate in the future. If new economic geography is the first bridge between economics and geography, then the evolutionary economic geography can be considered as the second bridge between the two. While evolutionary economics is gradually reaching its maturity, evolutionary economic geography, as a new subject based on evolutionary economics, starts to gain attentions. We explained the formation, advantages and applications of evolutionary economic geography. Evolutionary economic geography inherits the factors such as time and history from evolutionary economics, thus it covers a cross field between evolutionary economics and economic geography. Evolution economic geography is used widely at the micro, meso and macro scales, and it also has important implications in China's socio-economic development: (1) industrial dynamics indicate that the shift of industrial gradients doesn't necessarily lead to coordinated regional development; (2) relation networks suggest that it is necessary to ease the Hukou system and the system may even become obsolete; (3) the diversity shows that a single industry development strategy is risky; (4) policies and the change of the policies need to be "coherent".

Key words: diversity, evolutionary economic geography, industry dynamic, new economic geography, revolution