Chapter 6 Regional economic dynamics

This chapter presents an overview of regional economic dynamics. Static spatial analysis is formally concerned with four reasonably distinct bodies of instantaneous spatial phenomena with their determining strategic variables: (1) locations, or the spatial coordinates of localized economic activities; (2) interaction flows, or the intensity of spatial factor, goods, and information flows among points and/or regions; (3) increases or decreases in the availability of regional goods, factors, or income incident to changes in exogenous variables; and (4) spatial structures, including the areal or curvilinear patterns of economic activities, such as land use patterns, urban structure, transportation networks, and market or supply areas. Strategic variables mean the total of relevant variables that a specific theory or model includes. They divide into endogenous and exogenous variables or parameters. The chapter focuses on the theories and models that deal with changes through the time of phenomena in the same four categories, when such changes are the products of truly dynamic processes. It also presents the most influential work in the dynamics of locations, flows, changes, and structures and presents work in the location and transportation fields.