An Introduction to Geographical and Urban Economics

Steven Brakman is Professor of International Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. He is a research fellow of the CESifo institute in Munich, and co-editor of the Journal of Regional Science. He is academic partner of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy analysis, and member of the programme committee of Statistics Netherlands. Harry Garretsen is Professor of International Economics and Business at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge. Garretsen has published widely in books and leading international journals on urban, geographical, international economics and also on economics and leadership. He has also been active in giving policy advice on these topics. His editorial board activities include the Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Regional Science, Cambridge Journal of the Regions, Economy and Society, and Leadership Quarterly. Charles van Marrewijk is Professor of Economics and Head of Research at Universiteit Utrecht School of Economics, The Netherlands. He has published widely for leading international journals and publishers on spatial economics (including international, urban, regional, and geographical economics) and development economics (including economic growth, agglomeration, and globalization).

• Part I. Empirical Foundations: 1. A spiky world: what came before … (the 2001 and 2009 editions of our book); 2. Geo-human interaction; 3. Empirical methods; Part II. Urban Economics: 4. Space within cities; 5. City systems; 6. The empirics of agglomeration; Part III. Geographical Economics: 7. The core model; 8. Extensions of the core model; 9. Empirics of economic geography; Part IV. Development and Policy: 10. Geography and development; 11. Policy implications.

'Economic geography strikes back. After a couple of decades of easy talk about the 'death of distance' in the age of globalization, the promise of a future of rising living standards for all is increasingly challenged by the resilience of geographical disparities. By introducing students and scholars to the frontier of urban and geographical economics, this new edition equips them with the theoretical and empirical tools needed to make sense of our spiky world.' Gianmarco Ottaviano, Bocconi University and the London School of Economics and Political Science