Sustainable Economic Development in Energy Rich Economies: A Regional Approach

There is an extensive literature on or relating to development issues of energy rich economies – particularly those in the developing world. While national-level studies abound, the analyses of these economies at a regional scale or with a regional and spatial perspective are scarce. Generally, a bottom up regional approach to development and the value of insights that regional models and comparative regional studies provide have not received deserved attention in the field of development economics. Analyzing development sustainability in energy-based economies at a regional scale may provide insights not otherwise possible. National scale studies and models are mostly sectoral and ignore interesting development issues arising from spatial organization of production, distribution of physical and human capital over space, and spatial factors affecting the diversification of capital base. These studies mostly focus on developing economies while a regional perspective can cut across all energy rich economies in both the developing and developed world. A regional perspective can open doors to contributions from multidisciplinary spatial scientists from a wide range of fields including geography, planning, regional science and regional economics. Finally, using sub-national regions as units of analysis provides a richer picture of development at national scale and can shed light on important global sustainable development concerns. This paper outlines a general development framework based on constancy of total capital stock and outlines a comprehensive knowledge base for energy rich regions that can be used to derive patterns of development and can serve as a basis for qualitative and quantitative analyses of sustainable development in these regions within a global context.