Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Third, we have attempted to show how evolutionary processes of social or technical
innovation, selection, and retention lead to the gradual build-up of routines that allow
actors to economize on fact-i nding and information processing. A strong and coher-
ent array of routines simplii es the everyday tasks of making decisions. At the same
time, there are cognitive constraints at the micro level. Limited cognitive abilities make
individuals prefer local, exploitive search, in two dif erent ways. They tend to look for
solutions close to already existing routines, but they also tend to concentrate their search
in their spatial vicinity. The incorporation of functional and/or spatial myopia as a basic
behavioral assumption implies departing from mainstream economic conjectures of
rationalization, global maximization and equilibria.
Finally, leaving the micro-level phenomena and turning to the level of markets and
institutional regimes, we have maintained that a dominant institutional set-up, once
established, would tend to attract those i rms and individuals most compatible with it.
National, regional or local institutions gradually develop over time in response to the
special requirements of the presently dominating industry and lead to further speciali-
zation by creating a favorable environment for similar and complementary economic
activity. Thus, at the aggregate level of cities, regions or nations, evolutionary eco-
nomic geography can be argued to have as its main object of study the inertia and path
dependence caused by the development, reproduction and transformation of territorially
specii c routines and institutions.
Acknowledgement
This chapter partly draws on previous work, notably Maskell and Malmberg (1999),
Malmberg and Maskell (2002) and Maskell and Malmberg (2007). The i rst few
paragraphs of this chapter also appear, in slightly modii ed form, in Lagerholm and
Malmberg (2009). We acknowledge supportive as well critical comments from the
editors and anonymous referees in the process of preparing and revising this chapter.
Notes
1. While focusing on knowledge evolution, this chapter does not intend to give a full account of the large
and growing literature on the general economics of knowledge, following in the wake the founding
papers by Nelson (1959) and Arrow (1962). Basic notions like knowledge appropriability, indivisibility or
non-exhaustability are not explicitly considered in any detail here. These issues, as well as the distinction
between tacit and codii ed knowledge, have been addressed in other papers by the authors, on which this
chapter builds (see e.g. Malmberg and Maskell, 2006; and Maskell and Malmberg, 1999, 2007). For a
broad overview, see also Gertler (2003).
2. The sequence is a common social science substitute for the initial Darwinian terms of mutation, selection
and transmission; see Essletzbichler and Rigby (2007) or Glückler (2007).
3. Krugman's i rst engagement with economic geography starts out with a famous example of this (Krugman,
1990).
References
Agassi, J. (1960), 'Methodological individualism', British Journal of Sociology , 11 , 244-70.
Alonso, W. (1964), Location and Land Use: Toward a General Theory of Land Rent , Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Arrow, K.J. (1962), 'The economic implications of learning by doing', Review of Economic Studies , 29 , 155-73.
Arthur, W.B. (1989), 'Competing technologies, increasing returns, and lock-ins by historical events', Economic
Journal , 99 , 116-31.
Arthur, W.B. (1994), Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy , Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search