Géographie de la production et des revenus ?. Remarques critiques sur les analyses de Laurent Davezies

The idea that a difference exists between territories supported by the creation of wealth and others more focused on their spending was put forward by Laurent Davezies. This author suggests a noticeable opposition between a geography of production and a geography of incomes. If the underlying transfers of income between these territories are supposed to ensure territorial and social cohesion, they would be a burden likely to decrease the efficiency of the most productive territories. It is therefore necessary, he says, to stop « incantations on the theme of territorial cohesion » and to condemn « discriminating policies in favor of territories creating growth ». However, these analyzes suffer from conceptual, methodological and statistical weaknesses. This article highlights four major difficulties that lead to rejecting this so-called « innovative » approach.