Global Economic Geography: Key Terms and Concepts

1. Economic and Industrial Geography Terms 2007

2. Agricultural labor force • % of people employed in agriculture • High % of people employed in agriculture associated with low per capita income and low energy consumption and underdevelopment

3. Calorie consumption • Requirements vary according to occupation, age, sex, size and climate conditions • Used to assess the degree of undernourishment of a country’s population

4. Core-periphery model • A model of the spatial structure of the economic system in with underdeveloped or declining peripheral areas are defined with respect to their dependence on a dominating developed core region

5. Cultural convergence • The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology and organization structures in a modern world united by improved transportation and communication

6. Dependency theory • A structuralist model arguing that political and economic relationships (especially colonialism) between countries and regions control and limit the extent to which regions can develop

7. Energy consumption • A measure of development correlated loosely with per capita income, degree of industrialization, and use of advanced technology

8. Foreign direct investment • The total of overseas business investments made by private companies

9. Gender • Social differences between men and women---vary greatly over time and space

10. GDP • The value of the goods and services produced within a country in a given year

11. GNP • The value of the goods and services produced by a country’s economy within a given year. Includes goods and services produced by corporations and individuals of a country, whether or not they are located within the country

12. Human Development Index • An indicator of level of development for each country, constructed by the UN, compining income, literacy, education and life expectancy

13. Levels of Development

14. Measures of Development • Human development index • Gender related development index • Gender empowerment measure

15. Neocolonialism • Economic and political strategies by which powerful core states indirectly maintain or extend influence over other areas or people

16. Physical Quality of Life Index • an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country. The value is a single number derived from basic literacy rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy at age one, all equally weighted on a 0 to 100 scale

17. Purchasing Power Parity • A monetary measurement taking into account what money actually buys in a country

18. W.W. Rostow • Developed the five stages of growth

19. Stages of Growth Model

20. Technology Gap • The contrast between the technology available in the core and present in the periphery

21. Technology Transfer • The diffusion or acquisition by one culture or region of the technology possessed by another

22. Third World • can be used to divide the nations of Earth into one of three broad categories • the Third World became a synonym for those nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.

23. World Systems Theory • Emmanuel Wallerstein • One of many theories that treat the global economy as a large system

24. Agglomeration • When a substantial number of enterprises cluster in the same area, as in a large industrial city, they can provide assistance to each other through shared talents, services and facilities

25. Agglomeration Economies • agglomeration economies refers to savings or benefits derived from the clustering of activities

26. Assembly Line/Fordism • Traditionally in large factories each worker was assigned one specific task to perform repeatedly

27. Bid Rent Theory • a geographical theory that refers to how the price and demand on land changes as the distance towards the CBD (Central Business District) increases.

28. Break of Bulk Point • The location (usually a port) where a shipment is divided into parts. This usually (such as at the port) happens where a transfer of the shipment between transport modes occurs, such as between water and land at a port.

29. Comparative Advantage • Principle whereby places and regions specialize in activities for which they have the greatest advantage in productivity relative to other regions----or for which they have the least disadvantage

30. Deglomeration • The process of industrial deconcentration in response to technological advances and/or increasing costs due to congestion and competition

31. Deindustrialization • a relative decline in industrial employment in core regions

32. Economic Sectors • Primary • Secondary • Tertiary • Quaternary • Quinary

33. Economies of Scale • Savings that accrue from large-scale production when the unit cost of manufacturing decreases as the level of operation enlarges

34. Ecotourism • Aims to inform about the natural environment

35. Entrepot • A place, usually a port city where goods are imported, stored, and transshipped; a break of bulk point

36. Export Processing Zone • Small areas within which especialy foavorble investment and trading conditions are created by governments in order to attract export oriented industries

37. Fixed Costs • Fixed costs are expenses whose total does not change in proportion to the activity of a business, within the relevant time period or scale of production. • Rent • Utilities • Payroll

38. Footloose Industry • an industry whose production costs are unaffected by location • many modern industries have components which are much easier to transport, giving them much more choice of location

39. Four Tigers • These countries and territories were noted for maintaining high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s

40. Growth Poles • Economic activities that are deliberately organized around one or more high-growth industries • Industries designed to stimulate growth through the establishment of various supporting industries

41. Industrial Location Theory • Attempts to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity in terms of the factors that influence this pattern

42. Industrial Regions • Western and Central Europe • Eastern North America • Russia and Ukraine • Eastern Asia

43. Industrial Revolution • A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods

44. Infrastructure • The foundations of society: • Urban centers • Transport networks • Communications • Energy systems • Educational facilities • Farms, factories, mines

45. International Division of Labor • The specialization by countries in particular products for export

46. Labor-Intensive • An industry for which labor costs comprise a high percentage of total expenses

47. Least-Cost Location • Model developed by Weberaccording to which the location of manufacturing establishments is determined by the minimalization of three critical expenses • 1) • 2) • 3)

48. maquiladora • Factories built by US companies in Mexico near the US border to take advantage of much lower labor costs in Mexico • Imported components or raw materials are assembled and then finished products are exported • An example of an export processing zone

49. Market orientation • Production of a good will be located near the market if the cost of transporting goods to consumers is a critical locational factor • Bulk gaining • Single market • Perishable • Example of a situation factor

50. Multiplier effect • Expansion of economic activity caused by the growth or introduction of another activity