Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Demographic Challenges to Regional
Development
Geoffrey J.D. Hewings and Euijune Kim
Abstract
While the field of regional science has focused considerable attention on the role
of structural change in affecting regional development, relatively modest atten-
tion has been directed to the influence of demographic-induced changes with the
exception of migration and the impact of the demographic transition in develop-
ing countries. Further, most models of the regional economy portray significant
disaggregation of the industrial system yet often capture the impacts of
households in one sector. Increasing attention to household heterogeneity is
justified on the basis of different consumption behavior by age, income and
location. Since households account for 40-70 % of gross domestic product on
the expenditure side, addressing the role of household heterogeneity would
appear to be essential. In this paper, a review of recent work that captures this
heterogeneity will be reviewed and some illustrative results from applications in
Korea and the US will be provided.
11.1
Introduction
In his provocatively titled Presidential address to the Regional Science Association,
Torsten Hagerstrand (
1970
) asked “What about people in Regional Science?” He was
commenting on the tendency of researchers in the nascent field of regional science to
assign the role of individuals or households as afterthoughts in the development of
