Economic Geography

A. Course Objectives
The aim of the course is to provide a broad foundation concerning the basic concepts of the various fields of economic geography. The intention is to gain a good understanding of the main theories and models that explain the economic processes taking place in the geographical space, the location and spread of economic activities across the space, and the economic response to spatial transformations. In addition, understanding the nature and impact of the costs that space and distance generate and how these costs affect the location of economic activities. Another goal is to provide knowledge of alternative approaches to understanding economic activities and their spatial diversity at various levels - from the individual level, through the community level, the locality, the region, the state, to the global level.

B. Course topics

- The research fields in economic geography

- Basic Concepts: Consumption, production, exchange, economic sectors, national product, demand and supply, distance decay, agglomeration, relative advantage, globalization

- The capitalist system:

• Developmental History
• Waves of growth and decline
• The restructuring process
• The spatial division of labour

- The transportation system and its role in the location of economic activities

• Conditions of road formation
• Transportation intensity and the gravitational model
• Means of transport and competition between them
• Location of economic activities according to transport expenses

- The agricultural sector

• Agricultural revolutions, types of agricultural farms and the variability in agricultural activities
• Location of agricultural activities and the question of land rent
• Changes in the rural sector

- The industrial sector

• Characteristics of the spread of industrial activity in the world
• The life cycle of branches and products
• Location of industrial activities
• New industrial spaces
• Multinational companies and global considerations

- Trade and services activities

• The theory of central places
• The dynamics of the tertiary sector
• The various branches of services
• World cities

- The new economic geography

- Development and under-development

C. Course duties

- To submit all exercises – their share in the final grade is 30%.

- Participation in a field-trip that will take place in one of the Thursdays in the Commercial Center neighborhood in Tel Aviv and in its CBD.

- Final exam which weighs 70% of the final grade.

D. Bibliography

The major books:

·        

·         Stutz, F.P. and Warf, B. (2007) The World Economy: Resources, Location, Trade and Development (5th edition), Pearson – Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

·         Clark, G. L., Feldman, M. P., Gertler, M. S., & Wójcik, D. (2018). The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

·         Coe, N., Kelly, P., & Yeung, H. W. C. (2013). Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction. New York, NY, USA : John Wiley & Sons.

Additional sources:

- Haggett, P. (2001) Geography: A Modern Synthesis, Third Edition, Harper & Row, N.Y

- Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. (Eds.) (2009) The Dictionary of Human Geography, Fifth Edition, Blackwell Publishing, Malden.

- אורון, י., מארק, נ., עופר, א. (ללא שנה) מבוא לכלכלה: מאקרו כלכלה, מהדורה שנייה, עמיחי, נתניה.

- אורון, י., מארק, נ., עופר, א. (ללא שנה) מבוא לכלכלה: מיקרו כלכלה, מהדורה שנייה, עמיחי, נתניה.