What is Economic Geography?

The study of how people earn their living

How livelihood systems vary by area The distribution of various resources in the world How economic activities are interrelated and linked

Today, it is categorized as:

Core countries where richer countries are clustered

Peripheries countries of poverty and underdevelopment

Third World (1950s) a term applied to countries considered not yet fully developed or in a state of underdevelopment in economic and social terms First world Western capitalist bloc Second World communist bloc

Core-Periphery

Economic Development
Is discussed in terms of levels and rates of change in prosperity, as reflected in bottom-line statistical measures of productivity, incomes, purchasing power, and consumption. For human geographers, Economic Development refers to processes of change involving the nature and composition of the economy of a particular region, as well as to increases in its overall prosperity.

Unevenness of Economic Development

Coreperiphery Contrasts as the result of a competitive economic system that is heavily influenced by cultural and political factors.

Core
developed regions
G8 and G20

Periphery
Third World countries

Resources
Availability of key resources
Key Industrial Resourcesbasic raw materials and sources of energyare concentrated in Russia, US, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.
Exception: Oil fields concentrated in the Middle East.

The concentration of known resources in just a few countries is largely a result of geology, but it is also partly a function of countries political and economic development.

Types of Economic Activities

4 Types of Occupations according to Economic Geographers: 1) Primary activities involve the extractive sector in which workers and natural environment come into contact 2) Secondary the manufacturing sector
3) Tertiary the services sector 4) Quaternary the technologically-advanced sector involved in the collection and processing of information

Quinary activities involves managerial or control-function activity

WALT WHITMAN ROSTOW

American Economist and Political Theorist

view that each region or country is progressing from the early stages of development with a heavy reliance on primary activities (relatively low levels of prosperity), through a phase of industrialization and on to a mature stage of post-industrial development (with a diversified economic structure and relatively high levels of prosperity)

Stages of Economic Development (Rostow)

Investment in manufacturing; development of modern social, economic, and political institutions

HIGH MASS CONSUMPTION

Installation of physical infrastructure and emergence of political/social elite

DRIVE TO MATURITY Development of wider Industrial and commercial base

Exploitation of comparative advantages in international trade

Transition triggered by external influence, interests, or markets

TAKE-OFF Development of a Manufacturing sector

PRECONDITIONS FOR TAKE-OFF Commercial exploitation of Agricultural and Extractive industry

TRADITIONAL SOCIETY Limited Technology; Static society

Measurement of Development
GNP/GDP
GNP/GDP per capita Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)

GDP 2009 (WB)

European Union 15,990,000 1 United States 4,270,000

2 Japan 5,049,000 3 China 4,758,000

4 Germany 3,235,000
5 France 2,635,000 6 United Kingdom 2,198,000

47 Philippines $158,700

190 Tuvalu $14.94

Non-economic measures of development

Education
(ex. In Denmark (1980s) teacher-student ratio was 1:14 while in Burkina Faso I:350)

Public services
(safe drinking water and sanitary disposal to maintain human health)

Health
( access to medical facilities and personnel. E.g.(1990) in developed countries one physician serves 375 people but in developing world nearly 2000 peopleBurkina Faso has 1:54,000, Ethiopia 1: 78,000 )

Non-economic measures of development

Human Development Index (by UNDP)
Combining purchasing power, life expectancy, and literacy GDP per capita - Standard of living Income Literacy - Education Life expectancy - Physical well-being

Life expectancy (2006 est)

1 Macau 84.36

2 Andorra 82.51
3 Japan 82.12 4 Singapore 81.98

Non-economic measures of development

5 San Marino 81.97

6 Hong Kong 81.86 7 Australia 81.63 8 Canada 81.23 9 France (metropolitan) 80.98

10 Sweden 80.86 134 PHILIPPINES - 69.91 (2006) 133 PHILIPPINES 71.01

223 Swaziland 31.88

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

HDI (2006 report UNDP)

High Human Development
1 Norway 2 Iceland 3 Australia 4 Ireland - .965 - .960 - .957 - .956

Medium Human Development

64 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya - .798 65 Russian Fed - .797

5 Sweden - .951 6 Canada - .950 7 Japan 8 US - .949 - .948

74 Thailand - .784

81 China - .768
84 PHILIPPINES - .763

9 Switzerland -.947
10 Netherlands - .947

HDI (2006 UNDP)

Low Human Development 147 Togo - .495

148 Djibouti - .494 149 Lesotho - .494

150 Yemen

- .491

151 Zimbabwe - .491 152 Kenya - .491

153 Mauritania - .486

177 Niger - .311