Economic Geography

By William P. Anderson

BOOK REVIEW
London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

A decade ago, I had a conversation with a colleague about a new introductory course
on urban economic geography. One of the concerns we both had was the lack of
contemporary textbooks appropriate for such an offering. This trouble does not exist
today. The economic geography book market now has several good choices, so the
question of adopting a textbook has shifted (thankfully) away from the mere availability
of something new. Now, we can ask the more important question as to whether a new
economic geography text offers something unique and important. This question is cer-
tainly worthwhile to ask in assessing Anderson’s new Economic Geography volume.
Anderson addresses his motivation for writing up front: “I see great utility in the use
of formal models in the teaching and practice of economic geography. From a teaching
perspective, it is not so much the outcomes of models that are of value as the thinking 199
process that leads to their development” (xv). This outlook focuses the book’s aim of
providing a conceptual balance within the discipline. Toward this end, Anderson goes on
to make an important point regarding the “cultural turn” within economic geography:
while the field has benefited from a greater awareness of the institutional context for

89(2):199–200. © 2013 Clark University.

economic activity, Anderson argues that something is lost when the modeling approach
is given short shrift. Thus, this book is targeted to address the need for model-based
textbook resources that has been underserved in recent years.
Anderson organized his text in six sections. Part 1 covers the foundational concepts of
economic geography, advancing from fairly generic ideas related to geography broadly
(such as site and situation) to market and production concepts that are related to eco-
nomic geography specifically. The discussion provides a background that should prove
sufficient for even nongeography majors to get up to speed with key ideas needed to
navigate the remainder of the book.
Part 2 encompasses the multiregional economy. The topics covered include absolute
and comparative advantage, wage convergence, input-output multipliers, the effects of
imperfect competition, and unemployment. The discussion here, as elsewhere in the
book, highlights and explains key concepts without getting excessively bogged down in
mathematics. This section contains a particularly helpful overview of self-reinforcing
regional growth and related concepts, such as spread and backwash effects.
Part 3, on location theory, is a crucial component of the text’s contribution. The
discussion covers the established cornerstones of location analysis, including transpor-
www.economicgeography.org

tation, scale economies, and labor. While other contemporary economic geography texts
mention these topics, the depth of the related discussion in this text sets this book apart.
Transportation graphs and the thorough discussion of concepts, such as Weber’s triangle,
will be familiar territory to location analysts. The penultimate chapter in this section, on
interrelated location choices, provides a useful perspective on the real-world application
of location analysis concepts.
Part 4 focuses on the connection between markets and spatial patterns of land use. The
first chapter in the section centers on a treatment of markets for agricultural land, using the
standard Von Thünen framework with appropriate addendums to explain modern agricul-
tural land-use patterns, including the rise of monoculture. The other two chapters build on
the fundamentals of agricultural land use to address land use patterns in contemporary
cities, including issues related to sprawl and the rise of a polycentric urban form.
 BOOK REVIEW

Part 5 develops urban-economic applications further with an examination of city

systems. Treatments of city genesis, distributions of city sizes, urban hierarchies, and
urban networks are the focusof this section. The discussion of central place theory,
including a survey of the modern relevance of central place concepts, is a section
highlight. Anderson does a fine job of constructing the fundamentals of central place
theory in a coherent fashion. My only minor quibble with this discussion is the concen-
tration on Christallerian models at the expense of Löschian central place formulations
(a footnote being the exception), thus missing out on some potentially useful compari-
sons for classroom discussion.
Part 6 concludes the book with a look at concepts related to globalization and the
knowledge economy. Anderson frames the rationale for this final section thusly: “[H]ow
does the transition to a global knowledge economy affect the principles of economic
geography as set forth in the first five sections of this book?” (317). In answering this
question, the section deals with the liberalization of the global market, foreign direct
investment, the globalization of the production system, the impact of borders, and the
operation of agglomeration and regional convergence within the knowledge economy.
200 The discussion does a good job of incorporating concepts developed in earlier sections
in combination with emerging issues in contemporary economic development.
This book is important and useful. It offers content and perspectives that, following
Anderson’s initial aims, do indeed differentiate it from the rest of the market in economic
geography textbooks. The book’s effective use of case study boxes throughout (on a wide
variety of subjects, such as intermodal freight, export processing zones, and edge cities)
helps it communicate in practical ways the contemporary relevance of models and ideas
that are decades and even centuries old. However, it should also be noted that this book
does not offer a lot of flash. For the most part, this is fine: while improved use of graphics
might have broadened the book’s appeal, this is a small objection, given the text’s
weighty conceptual contributions and focused market. The key way in which this visual
weakness affects comprehension is seen in the places where improved design would have
helped the book’s figures better support the related in-text discussion. For example, the
map of the Chicago metropolitan area (7) includes much empty space and could have
been better executed as a two-part map series to illustrate the changing census definition
of the region more clearly. Another example, the Auto Alley map (203), identifies the
locations of assembly plants but omits key interstate highways and place names that are
mentioned in the associated discussion. Other examples could be cited, but all similar
points could be easily addressed in a future revision.
In summary, Economic Geography is a fine text, but it is clearly not intended to fit
every economic geography course. Economic geographers whose classroom approach
emphasizes the institutional context will find other volumes that better suit their needs.
Even instructors whose teaching features modeling may consider bringing in supple-
mental readings to cover selected themes in contemporary economic geography that are
not addressed in the book. However, for economic geography faculty who want to
include broad coverage of the foundational models of the discipline, Anderson’s book is
a unique and essential contribution.
Murray D. Rice
University of North Texas