Globalization in History: a Geographical Perspective
Author(s)
Crafts, Nicholas; Venables, Anthony J.
Abstract
The main objective of this chapter is to link economic geography to the history of globalization. According to the authors, placing the economic history of the past two centuries in a geographical perspective can add to the understanding of the past experience of economic development. They argue that agglomeration constitutes a very important feature in explaining past development, and will continue to be important. This means that size and location will continue to influence relative income levels. Both neoclassical growth and the new institutional economic history (highlighting convergence and the death of the distance in the first case, and the role played by institutional quality in the second) are in danger of exaggerating: a geographical perspective suggests that in economic development the playing field is far from level and that recognition of this casts a different light on both past performance and future prospects.
