The Role of Geography in Development

This article assesses how the tension between centripetal forces (such as forward and backward linkages in production and increasing returns in transportation) and centrifugal forces (such as factor immobility and land rents) can produce a process of self-organization in which symmetric locations end up playing very different economic roles. The article discusses geographic models of the division of the world into industrial and developing countries, of the emergence of regional inequality within developing countries, and of the emergence of giant urban centers. It argues that the conflict between “predestination” and “self-organizing” approaches to economic geography may be more apparent than real and briefly discusses policy—mainly in terms of why it is so hard to draw policy conclusions from economic geography models.