Role of Industrial Agglomeration in Regional Economic Activity

This book analyzes role of industrial agglomeration in regional economy. The analysis shows the functions of the agglomeration in two stages of economic development, before and after the globalization. This analysis is followed by verification of the effectiveness of the agglomeration analysis by using Japanese economic data. First, the book clarifies that the agglomeration contributes to reducing the production costs though the land-based economies. In line with the minimum-cost logic, it is shown that the market competition modes that minimizes the delivery prices to the consumers comes to prevail in the spatial goods market. Secondly, the book explains that firms' production processes are fragmented by connection economies and the land-based economies of the agglomeration. The fragmentation increases the differentiation among workers and between the regions. And then, it increases the opportunity for government to intervene in the industrial locations. In this intervention, industrial parks that provide agglomeration economies become important as a means of the policy. The final part of the book shows that the inspection using the regional economic data in Japan supports the effectiveness of the analysis using the concepts of the connection economies and the land-based agglomeration economies. Lastly, an industrial policy based on the results derived by the analysis is proposed for the regions in the rural area.

Clarifies the essence and functions of industrial agglomeration in regional economies Presents a cause and countermeasure for uneven regional economic activity resulting from industrial agglomeration Derives a method for typifying regional economies using concepts of agglomeration economies

Autorentext

The author's primary academic fields are industrial location theory, spatial economics, and regional economics. The author has made some interesting theoretical discoveries in the above academic realms. Many academic results have been presented at ERSA and the papers have been published in international journals and books: In the field of the market area theory, only regular hexagonal market area had been regarded as optimal shape, but his paper showed that equilateral triangle and square can be also optimal shape. And the author showed, using the concepts of contact price and conjectural price valuation, that the market area of retail management changes differently due to the decrease in freight rate, and the pattern of the change differs depending on department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. It also clarifies in his book that city systems are polarized by the decreasing freight rate.

Inhalt

Location Analysis in Simple Economic Activity Stage.- Background and Contents of Analysis in Part I.-Factory Location in Plane Space.- Locational Influence of Competition Modes in Spatial Market.- Factory Location in Circumference Space.- Location Analysis of Economic Activities in the Globalization Era.- Background and Contents of Analysis in Part II.- Structural Change of Sales and Production In Region by the Globalization.- Changes in Sales and in Production Activity.- Expanding Opportunity for Government Intervention.- Working of Agglomeration Economies in the Matured Globalization Era.- Contents of Analysis in Part III.- Classification of Regional Economy by Indexes of Connection Economies.- Derivation of Characteristics of Classified Regional Economies.- Possibility of Technology-Centered Agglomeration in Rural Region.