Economic Geography and the Unequal Development of Regions

Jean-Claude Prager is Chief Economist at the Greater Paris Corporation, France.Jacques-François Thisse is Professor of Economics and Regional Science at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

• 1. The World is Anything but Flat 2. Economic Geography: Facts and Theories 3. The Long-term Growth of Regions: What We Know and What We Don’t 4. From Economic Theory to Policy 5. Everything is in the Execution

'Jean-Claude Prager and Jacques-François Thisse take insights from new economic geography to illuminate the determinants of regional growth and examine the effectiveness of policies used in the pursuit of economic development. Theirs is a well-written and thought-provoking book that, simply put, probes into why some regions are more developed than others (both within and across nations). [... This book] could be of great interest to regional policymakers — especially those who believe that simple solutions exist to complex economic development problems — and students in urban and regional economics. The book does not use mathematical equations or graphs, but the authors are rigorous in the presentation of relevant examples and literature to support their main ideas about economic development. The book could be used as an effective secondary text in a graduate class that covers more technical aspects of new economic geography in journal articles or in a primary text that is more mathematics intensive.' — Journal of Regional Science, February 2013