Regional economy

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The regional economics (also regional economic or space economy ) is a special discipline of economics and the regional science . It deals with the economic interrelationships in regions and thus represents the economic counterpart to foreign trade . The next smallest level of analysis is the urban economy .

Regional economics deals with macroeconomic and microeconomic aspects. Neighboring scientific areas include regional science , economic geography , environmental economics , transport economics and spatial planning .

Regional macroeconomics

Regional macroeconomics deals with the stability and growth of regions. Important aspects here are regional business cycles, regional agglomeration and regional disparities , i.e. the question of why some regions are more prosperous than others.

For regional policy it is therefore of particular macroeconomic importance to what extent regional disparities can be eliminated. Typical methods for this are revenue sharing concepts such as the German fiscal equalization . But the European Union is also trying - especially with the help of the structural funds - to eliminate regional differences in the EU.

Regional microeconomics

At the regional level, microeconomics particularly examines location decisions and regional market imperfections . Location decisions are primarily influenced by regional competitive advantages such as infrastructure , tax law or education .

Importance of the regional economy

The regional economy receives far less public attention than external economic phenomena such as European integration or globalization . Nevertheless, science has gained in importance both politically and economically, since according to various economists the transfer of (economic) political powers to a supranational level (e.g. UN , WTO or EU ) makes a functional regional (economic) policy far more important.

This increasing importance of regional economics can be seen, for example, in the current economic buzzword cluster , which has also found its way into economic policy through the promotion of technology and start-up centers and has replaced the traditional watering can principle in many areas. The modern cluster theory was strongly influenced by the American economist Michael E. Porter .

literature

  • Gunther Maier, Franz Tödtling: Location theory and spatial structure (=  regional and urban economics . Volume 1 ). 4th edition. Springer, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-211-27954-0 .
  • Gunther Maier, Franz Tödtling, Michaela Trippl: Regional Development and Regional Policy (=  Regional and Urban Economics . Volume 2 ). 3. Edition. Springer, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-211-27955-7 .
  • Hans-Michael Trautwein (ed.): The development of spatial economics from its beginnings to the present (=  studies for the development of economic theory . Volume 29 ). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-428-14384-9 .

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