New Directions in Regional Economic Development,edited by C. Karlsson, A. E. Andersson,P. C. Cheshire and R. R. Stough, Springer, Berlin (2009). 415 pp. US$179.00 (hbk). ISBN 978 3 642 01016 3.

摘要

New Directions in Regional Economic Development is a collection of papers under a theme of 'Innovation, Dynamic Regions, and Regional Dynamics' presented at an international workshop held in June 2005 to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Professor Borje Johansson. The emphasis of conventional wisdom of regional economic development lies on the existence of an idealized general equilibrium, which is based on three main assumptions: anonymous markets and mutual independence of agents; the convexity of preference and production technology sets; and flexible pricing of goods and production factors. However, Johansson has contributed by arguing that increasing returns to scale are compatible with economic equilibrium and by elaborating on the significance of interdependence among agents by developing a series of theories and models in the spatial and dynamic context. In addition, he questions the assumption of convex production technologies in light of internal and external increasing returns. The twenty-one chapters in this book reflect the considerable influence of Johansson on these research directions. This volume addresses emerging hypotheses, new methods, and theoretic developments in the field of regional economic development through extensive review of research and concrete evidence in a diverse set of regions and under a variety of contexts in Europe, Central and East Asia, and North America. This book provides an evaluation of new directions in regional economic development, particularly the role of entrepreneurship and innovation as drivers of economic growth and development on the sub-national regional level.