IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5220.html

The Seamless World: A Spatial Model of International Specialization

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Krugman
  • Anthony J. Venables

Abstract

This paper is an effort to do international trade theory without mentioning countries. Nearly all models of the international economy assume that trade takes place between nations or regions which are themselves dimensionless points. We develop a model in which economic space is instead assumed to be continuous, and in which this 'seamless world' spontaneously organizes itself into industrial and agricultural zones because of the tension between forces of agglomeration and disagglomeration. One might expect such a model to be analytically intractable, but we are able to gain considerable insight through a combination of simulations and an analytical approach originally suggested in a biological context by Alan Turing.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 1995. "The Seamless World: A Spatial Model of International Specialization," NBER Working Papers 5220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5220
    Note: ITI IFM
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5220.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 1995. "Globalization and the Inequality of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 857-880.
    2. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    3. Paul N. Courant & Alan V. Deardorff, 2011. "International Trade with Lumpy Countries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Robert M Stern (ed.), Comparative Advantage, Growth, And The Gains From Trade And Globalization A Festschrift in Honor of Alan V Deardorff, chapter 14, pages 141-154, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. repec:fth:iniesr:430 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Picard, Pierre M. & Toulemonde, Eric, 2006. "Firms agglomeration and unions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 669-694, April.
    2. Pierre Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Agglomeration and the adjustment of the spatial economy§," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 311-349, August.
    3. Ademir Rocha & Fernando Perobelli, 2020. "Spatial distribution of logistics services in Brazil: A potential market analysis," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 185-217, February.
    4. Fujita, Masahisa & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "New Economic Geography: An appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 109-119, March.
    5. Ralph Ossa, 2015. "A Quantitative Analysis of Subsidy Competition in the U.S," 2015 Meeting Papers 1107, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Fabio Cerina & Francesco Pigliaru, 2007. "Agglomeration and Growth in the NEG: A Critical Assessment," Chapters, in: Bernard Fingleton (ed.), New Directions in Economic Geography, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Antonella Nocco, 2009. "Preference Heterogeneity And Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 33-56, February.
    8. Éléonore Boiscuvier, 2001. "Innovation, intégration et développement régional," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 77(2), pages 255-280.
    9. Pflüger, Michael & Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 2010. "The size of regions with land use for production," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 481-489, November.
    10. Paul Krugman, 1999. "The Role of Geography in Development," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 22(2), pages 142-161, August.
    11. Epifani, Paolo, 2005. "Heckscher-Ohlin and agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 645-657, November.
    12. Baldwin, Richard E. & Krugman, Paul, 2004. "Agglomeration, integration and tax harmonisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Puga, Diego, 1999. "The rise and fall of regional inequalities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 303-334, February.
    14. Kind, Hans Jarle & Knarvik, Karen Helene Midelfart & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2000. "Competing for capital in a 'lumpy' world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 253-274, November.
    15. Stephen J. Redding & David E. Weinstein, 2016. "A unified approach to estimating demand and welfare," CEP Discussion Papers dp1445, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Gilles Duranton & Tomoya Mori, 2025. "How Masa Fujita shaped the present of spatial economics and how he will inspire its future," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 76(4), pages 691-716, October.
    17. Adolfo Cristobal-Campoamor & Osiris Parcero, 2013. "Behind the Eastern–Western European convergence path: the role of geography and trade liberalization," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(3), pages 871-891, December.
    18. Fabien Candau, 2011. "Is Agglomeration Desirable?," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 101-102, pages 203-227.
    19. Kurt A. Hafner, 2015. "Tax Competition and Economic Integration," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 45-61, February.
    20. Fabien Candau, 2008. "Entrepreneurs' Location Choice And Public Policies: A Survey Of The New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 909-952, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.