University of Costa Rica School of

Geography Course. Economic Geography

What is Economic Geography?

Teacher. Melvin Lizano Araya. August,

2008.
 Traditional Economic
Geography.
When analyzing any branch of Geography, it is necessary to focus on
the contexts in which it was born and developed. These contexts are
socio-economic, historical, political, cultural and scientific. Then the
study content, approaches, methods and objectives must be analyzed.
 The first scientific studies of Geography were dominated by cosmological,
astronomical, mathematical, cartographic, physical and chorographic
content. Later, the issue focused on thematic cartography, physical
geography, human geography and regional geography.
E.

Population Density of the

WORLD

Density Of Papulation
(Persons per Sq.Km) •
500 - 1000 | | 300 -
500
| 200 -300
II tOO-200 □ 50 - 100
___J 0-50
In the mid-19th century and early 20th century, what we can call
contemporary geography was defined, in which the process of
industrialization, commercialization, urbanization, the formation of
various states, colonialism, the need for statistical and cartographic
information, naturalistic currents, romanticism, positivism, evolutionism,
the development of universities and research centers, with the
consequent institutionalization of our discipline, had a particular impact.

Mapping the Future of

World Population

Species number
per ecoregion
<500 500-1000

m
1000-2000
2000-3000 3000-

5000mm
>5000

11 □ I IQ II
Taking into account the above indications, between the end of the 17th
century and 1880, a series of statistical geographies were developed. (P.
Dictionary) Madoz), commercial geography (studies exportable
productions and their own needs) and colonial geography (study of
countries that can supply raw materials and represent an extension of
markets). The Geographical Societies contributed decisively to the
development of these trends, which have survived to this day with other
names and objectives (tropical countries, underdeveloped countries, etc.).

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS. Development and Underdevelopment

• from 0 25 to 0.50 •

from 0.50 to 0.70 2J

from 0.70 to 0.80 • from

0.80 to 1.00

] No data

The Human Development Index is

calculated based on Life Expectancy at
Birth, Illiteracy Rate, School Enrollment
Level of Women and Men and GDP per
capita

Obtained from: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/IMG/artoff556.jpg

At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century,
Geography was divided into General Geography and Regional Geography.
The first is subdivided into Physical Geography and Human Geography.
There will also be a Historical Geography and a Political Geography.
Regional Geography studies the Earth's surface divided into continents or
climatic zones.
Physical Geography is soon subdivided into Geomorphology, climatology,
soil geography, hydrogeography, biogeography (phytogeography and
zoogeography). The same happens in Human Geography: social
geography, population geography, rural geography, agrarian geography,
agricultural geography, territorial organization geography and economic
geography. In Economic Geography, we have a branch of industrial
geography and another of commercial and communications geography,
related to the economics of industry, trade and transport.
 In 1882, the German Gotz used the expression economic geography for
the first time. Of the factors that are combined in production (land,
capital, labor), economic geography is interested in natural resources.
Traditional Economic Geography dealt with production and especially the
problem of marketing, which is undoubtedly an incomplete conception.
N •
 Historical Development

Economic geography, as a specialty within geography, has its origins in

late 19th-century commercial geography—which focused on the spatial
location of raw materials and natural resources, a location related to
physical geography and the development of transportation networks.
Commercial geography played an important role in establishing and
sustaining the economic relations of colonialism. Many of the 19th
century explorers were sponsored by the geographical societies founded
during the first decades of the century in Berlin, Paris and London.
Commercial geography, which prevailed until the mid-20th century, was
based primarily on the broad framework of regional geography. He
devoted himself to the description and mapping of natural resources and
their exploitation in the world.
 However, since the 1950s, this
predominantly descriptive approach has given way to another, more
theoretically focused and more attentive to economic factors. The
driving force behind this change was the so-called 'quantitative
revolution', which affected the whole of geography, and especially
human geography, during the late
1950s and early 1960s.

Johann Von Thunen's localization theory. Take into consideration

different variables and processes
For example:
The market, the communication channels, the product's lifespan, the buyers.
It takes into account subsistence agriculture and not industrial agriculture.
Initially, these theories of economic geography were based fundamentally
on neoclassical economic policy and assumed that the market system
was a rational and efficient distributor of resources and wealth. Political,
social and cultural aspects and problems associated with the distribution
of resources and wealth were ignored. Geographic models derived from
neoclassical economic policy included many theories about the location of
industries, patterns of agricultural land use, settlement patterns, and
transportation networks.
Some earlier models were developed at this time. These include:

• The model of agricultural land use, German agronomist Johann Heinrich

von Thünen in 1820.
• Alfred Weber's on the industrial settlement, established at the beginning
of the 20th century.
• Models for the location of settlements, defined in the 1930s by the
geographer Walter Christaller and the economist August Lösch (who gave
rise to the theory of central place), both German.
The word economy, according to its economic meaning, refers to a
heritage (oikos) that must be regulated and administered (nomos).
Human activity will be economic when there is a provision of good
services, which tend to satisfy material needs, not satisfied naturally.
Economic goods and services are the means by which different needs are
attempted to be satisfied.
Economic activity involves two fundamental processes: obtaining goods
and services, that is, production, and the satisfaction of needs,
consumption. When these two processes do not occur within the same
unit or economic agent, a third process arises, marketing, which puts
consumers and producers in contact.
 Relationships between Geography and Economics.

The first economists paid little attention to the problems of spatial

distribution. His studies will suffer from excessive non-dimensionality and
there will be a tendency towards abstraction, which causes a distancing
from reality. It should also be noted that geographers have not always
given due importance to socioeconomic factors, being obsessed with the
study of the natural environment, which led to a distancing of economists
who did not find much use in geographical studies.
After the Second World War, economics and geography came together.
The so-called "New Geography" is developed (preceding Christaller's
theory of places, 1933) with a mathematical conception, of spatial
interactions (Ullman, 1954), of abstract distributions (Ackerman, 1958), of
theoretical or theoretical Geography, of quantitative methods

Economic Map of Europe, 1910

Economics, for its part, is interested in spatial problems, location theories
are developed (considering supply and demand together), transport
issues are explored in depth and regional analysis is undertaken with
interest. These approaches are used by geographers and economists in
regional planning and land use planning.
A first relationship is found in the topic of localization. Once the problems
concerning the nature of value and wealth (factors of production,
competition, buyers and sellers, prices, supply, demand, mobility, etc.)
had been overcome, economics began to take an interest in issues
relating to location.

Economic Map of
Europe
Such are the pioneering works of Von Thüren, Weber and Hoover, who
studied the principles that allowed costs to be minimized when
choosing a location, and so shortly afterward the supply model was
analyzed, but the same was not done with the demand model.
TO. Losch introduced the demand factor into the analysis of the size of
market areas. Since the 1950s, geographers and economists have been
interested not only in the problem of where activities are located, but in
how much activity is carried out in each location, trying to determine
supply, demand, price and the overall level of production.
 Economic geography

Branch of Geography, specifically human geography, which is dedicated

to the study of the various types of economic activities and their
relationship with the exploitation of the Earth's natural resources. In
simple terms, it is the part of Geography dedicated to understanding how
people live in relation to the spatial distribution of resources and the
production and consumption of goods and services.
Economic geography has traditionally
been divided into four broad, closely
interrelated fields:

• Agricultural or agrarian geography.

• Industrial geography.
• The geography of services
• The geography of transport, the latter
sometimes included in the former.
Agricultural Geography
As a branch of General Human Geography and in particular of Economic
Geography, Agrarian Geography deals with agriculture and related
activities, an activity as old as the sedentary life of human beings.
However, the geographer's point of view is different from the economist's
point of view regarding agriculture. The geographer is more interested in
the result of the work of the land in the landscape, which is why it
becomes a discipline of synthesis.
par
excellence.
Industrial Geography
Branch of geography that seeks to explain the
relationship between the earth's surface and
the industrialization process and its
associated
consequences.
Geography of Services
It can be considered as a part of economic
geography.

Services can be studied from three points of view:

•A point of view from the supply side.

•A point of view from the intermediaries.
•A point of view from the demand side or
consumers.
Geography of Transport I ANDELA TRANS-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT NETWORK
(HORIZON 2010) SECTION: COMBINED TRANSPORT.

It is the branch of Human Geography that deals with the study of

XXI NO TOY All YNMIAIKC AIKTYOY MIETANNX2N (OPZO2N
20101
TMIIMA: ZYNAYAEMLNIL MI:TAOX:2

transportation systems in different geographic spaces or territories.

MAP OF THE TRANS-EUROPEAN TRANSPORT NETWORK
(HORIZON 2010) DRY: COMBINED TRANSPORT

RAILWAY CORRIDORS
EIAHPOAPOMIKOI AIAAROMOI
RAILWAY LINE

EXISTING CONNECTIONS / Y11 APX( >YEI 1 LYXMIEIL

/ EXISTING CONNECTIONS
.... PLANNED EXTENSION /1 IPOrPAMINI NTTLAIT I III KT Mil / MY
PLANNED EXTENSIONS

CONNECTIONS WITH THIRD PARTY COUNTRIES

courunemte inGcado) avuMn 1 n umE MS1Liuiuii12
CONNECTIONS WITH COUNTRIES TE RCER05 (for current
purposes)
 Other definitions on Economic Geography.

• Study of world areas as they directly influence the production of goods

(Gotz, 1882).

• The study of the production and distribution of goods (Allix, 1950).

• The study of products and problems presented by the national

economy (Delfontaines, 1964).

• Study of the organization of the landscape and the determination of

the physical basis of national economies. (Sampedro, 1961, and 1969).
• Behavioral science, concerned with the location and distribution of
humanity's economic activities (McCarty and Lindberg, 1966).

• It is the part of human geography based on the study of production,

consumption and the changes produced (Meynier, 1971).

• Research on the production, exchange and consumption of goods carried out

by human beings in different areas of the world (P. George, 1964).

• Study of production and product displacement (M. Derruau,1961).

• Study of the spatial aspects of the struggle that men carry out against
scarcity, explains the movements and the distribution of the wealth thus
created, underlines the obstacles that producers face, and indicates those that
are due to nature and those that correspond to institutions, demonstrates how
landscapes and the distribution of groups, some in relation to others, are the
result of decisions taken in order to get the best use of resources (Claval,
1980).
 Study topics of Economic Geography.

Traditional approach: men and economic systems; Structure and forms of

organization of economic activity and forms of organization; Study of
production (industrial, agricultural, mining, energy, fishing, forestry); among
others.
Spatial economics approach: Study of available goods and services, analyzing
their unequal distribution, their poles of attraction, their flows and mobility;
Studies of consumption and expenditure units; study of production units with
their motivations, equilibrium factors, organizational problems, benefits,
dimensions and external relations; Studies of industrial, agricultural and
service location; among others.
Locational approach: it shares almost all the concerns of the two previous
ones, but focuses its work on the issues of urban and regional development,
territorial analysis, and urban and regional planning.
ILEEo/IEID'D • ILLLLLLLLLIII ELIEL
 Research Methods in Economic Geography

Economic geographers, like other human geographers, make use of a wide

variety of data, as well as a variety of analytical methods, such as statistical
models.
Other sources of data include those issued by governments and
multinational organisations such as the International Monetary Fund or the
United Nations, which provide agricultural and industrial production rates,
unemployment figures, land use surveys, trade statistics, infant mortality
rates or the relationship between debt and services.
These sources also include maps, aerial photographs and satellite images,
as well as information obtained from field work, surveys and
questionnaires. An important source of data and analytical tool that is
becoming increasingly important for all human geographers is the so-
called Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
GIS can be used to analyse, for example, the impact of certain economic
activities on the environment, the spatial distribution of specific industries or
populations (executives and manual workers, for example) within urban areas.

Global Landslide Proportional Economic Loss Risk Distribution

P'
o

9 2
K.

Like Total Economic Loss. Economic Loss as a Proportion of GDP Density is found by weighting the value of GDP exposure to
landslides for each grid cell by a vulnerability coefficient to obtain an estimate of risk. The vulnerability weights are based on
historical economic losses tn previous disasters. The economic loss risks are applied to GDP per unit area exposure to obtain
economic loss risks. The weights are an aggregate index relative to losses within each region and country wealth class
(classifications based on 2000 GDP) over the 20-year period from 1981 - 2000. This index is then normalized by GDP.
 Current Trends

Economic relations are not static, and the geography of the global economy is
constantly changing. In recent years, industrial restructuring has led to the
globalization of production processes.
The economy of highly industrialized countries is largely based on
consumerism, and economic geography is increasingly interested in
consumption patterns as well as production. Recent work, for example, has
focused on retailing and service provision.
Tourism in the Caribbean
Bahamas

Mexico

Haiti Republic
Jamaica

Honduras St. Lucia

Guatemala

St. Vincent
& Grenadines
Nicaragua Curacao

Trinidad Barbados
& Tobago
Panama
Costa Rica
Grenada

Venezuela
Colombia
Guyana

2005 International tourist arrivals per km2 International tourist arrivals' change (1991-2005)

percent • >200 mu 150-200 m 100-150

■■0-100
■ stable or decrease

For all countries, data from “Caribbean Tourist Organization'at www.onecanbbean.org (1991-2006). except Honduras, Nicaragua. Costa Rica. Panama. Colombia and Venezuela then, Wold Bank's "World Development Indicators 2005" at
http://devdata.worldbank.org/wdi2005(1995-2005).
Countries smaller than 300km2 have not had their “2005 International arrival per km?” represented.
Latest tourist arrival data for Costa Rica and Turks & Caicos, 2004, for Guadeloupe and Haiti. 2001. UNEP Europe
Cartography: UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Europe. February 2008
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps and graphics do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
Over the last twenty years, economic geography, in all its forms, has become
more critical, focusing its concern on the unequal distribution of wealth and
well-being. The latest advances in this science, noted above, involve a range of
geographic scales, patterns and processes that are much more complex and
delicate than the previous neoclassical models.

Consumption by country (in 20013)

■ My» of* 50 above the biocapacity'
Lili 0-506 above Cash reduction
0-50 pee below biacapacity

B More than 50% below the regeneration quota of courses

Rapid rodixcsn of the

community

At current rates, humanity will consume the resources

of 2 planet Earths by 2050

GDP Density

GDP per square kilometer $0-499

$ 600- 1.099
$ 1,100-2.999
S 3,000 ■ 8,099

| 9$8,100-21,199m 22,000-59,999
m$60,000- 162,999 m 163,000 -441,999
■ S 442, 000 - 546,000 000
II No Data
 Important concepts for the development of the course

Macroecono Macroeconomics is the overall study of the economy in

my: terms of the total amount of goods and services produced,
total income, level of employment, productive resources,
and general price behavior. Macroeconomics can be used
to analyze how best to influence political objectives such
as economic growth, price stability, jobs, and achieving a
sustainable balance of payments. Macroeconomics, for
example, focuses on the phenomena that affect the
variables that indicate the standard of living of a society.

Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the

Microecono economic behavior of individual agents, such as
mics:
consumers, companies, workers and investors, as well as the markets that
comprise these areas. Consider the decisions that each person makes to
meet certain personal objectives. The above, taking into account that it is in
the assumption of free enterprise or free market.
 Market It is any set of transactions, agreements or exchanges of goods
: and services between buyers and sellers. In contrast to a simple
sale, the market involves regular and regulated trade, where there is some
competition between participants.

GDP:
It is the total monetary value of a country's current production of
goods and services during a period (usually a quarter or a year).
GDP is a flow magnitude, since it only accounts for the goods and
services produced during the study stage. Furthermore, GDP does
not take into account goods or services that are the result of
informal work (domestic work, exchanges of services between
acquaintances, etc.).
Per capita: It is a Latin phrase in current use that literally means by
heads.
Generally, it is used to indicate the average per person in a
given statistic, usually income.

Industr Industry is the set of processes and activities that aim to

y:
transform raw materials into manufactured products on a mass scale.
There are different types of industries, depending on the products they
manufacture. For example, the food industry is dedicated to the
production of products intended for consumption, such as cheese,
sausages, preserves, beverages, etc.
It is any good or service sent to another part of the world, for commercial
Exports purposes. Export is the legitimate trade in national goods
and services of a country intended for use or
consumption abroad. Exports can be any product shipped
outside the border of a State. Exports are generally
carried out under specific conditions.

An import is any good or service received from another

country, province, town or other part of the world, usually
Imports for exchange, sale or to increase local services. Imported
products or services are supplied to local consumers by foreign producers
 Raw Raw materials are those materials extracted from nature
material: that we use to build consumer goods. They are classified
according to their origin: vegetable, animal, and mineral.
Before a consumer good is finally built or manufactured,
raw materials are first transformed into semi-finished or
semi-manufactured products.

Trade: Commerce is the socioeconomic activity consisting of the

purchase and sale of goods, whether for use, sale or
transformation. It is the exchange or transaction of something in exchange
for something else of equal value.
Offer It is defined as the quantity of goods or services that
: producers are willing to offer at different prices and given
conditions, at a given time.
Supply is also defined as the quantity of products and
services available for consumption.
It is determined by factors such as the price of capital, labor
and the optimal combination of the aforementioned
resources, among others.

It is defined as the quantity and quality of goods and services

Deman that can be acquired at different market prices by a
d: consumer (individual demand) or by the group of consumers
(total or market demand).
Estate: They are tangible and intangible assets that have economic
value.
and therefore susceptible to being valued in monetary
terms. In this sense, the term good is used to name things
that are useful to those who use or own them. In the
market context, goods are things and merchandise that are
exchanged and that are in demand by people or
organizations that consider that they receive a benefit from
obtaining them.

Services: A service is a set of activities that seek to respond to

needs of a client. A framework is defined in which activities
will be developed with the idea of setting an expectation in
the result of these. It is the non-material equivalent of a
good. The provision of a service does not result in
possession, and this is how a service differs from providing
a physical good.
Literature

• Allix, A. 1950. Handbook of physical, human and economic geography.

Ed. Rialp. Madrid, Spain.
• Berry, B. 1971. Geography of market centres and retail distribution. Ed.
Vicens Vives. Barcelona, Spain.
• Boudecille, J. R. 1961. These are economic spaces. PUB. Paris, France.
• Boudeville, J. R. 1972. Aménagement du territory et polarisation. Genin.
Paris, France.
• Chisholm, M. 1969. Geography and Economics. Ed. Oikos-Tau.
Barcelona, Spain.
• Claval, P. 1980. Economic geography. Ed. Oikos-Tau. Barcelona, Spain.
• Hagget, P. 1976. Locational analysis in human geography. Ed. Gustavo
Gili. Barcelona, Spain.
• Mc Carty, H. and J, B. Lindberg. 1970. Introduction to economic
geography. FCE Mexico.
• Velarde, F. 1970. Does Economic Geography Make Sense? In «Annals of
Economics», No. 58. Madrid, Spain. pp. 319-377.