The contrastive approach to explanation is employed to shed light on the issue of the unrealisticness of models and their assumptions in economics. If we take explanations to be answers to contrastive questions of the form, then unrealistic elements such as omissions and idealizations are (at...

In this paper, based on the recent advances in the new economic geography (e.g., Fujita, Krugman and Venables [12]), we analyze impacts of transport costs on the spatial patterns of economic agglomeration. We first identify prototypes from the existing models, and explain the mechanism of how...

This paper presents an overview of recent development in the new economic geography (NEG), and discusses possible directions of its future development. Since there already exist several surveys on this topic, we focus on the selected features of the NEG which are important yet have attracted...

The aim of our paper is to capture, using logical analysis and graphic modelling, the implications of the new economic geography (NEG) in terms of regional policy in Romania, aiming to answer the question whether NEG and agglomeration economies should concern the policy makers in our country....

This article introduces a social planner version of a model central to the New Economic Geography for explicitly answering whether the symmetric equilibrium outcome of the decentralized market economy is socially desirable. We find that savings incentives are too weak, resulting in an...

The paper analyzes modern principles of regional policy and whether they are applicable to the Russian economy. We consider, on the one hand, the principles of the World Bank policy based on a spatially neutral approach to choosing measures of regional policy, and, on the other hand, the EU...

This paper presents a New Economic Geography model with distortionary taxation and endogenized trade costs. Tax revenues finance a public good, infrastructure. We show that the introduction of costly public investment in infrastructure increases agglomerative tendencies. With respect to the...

This Paper analyses the interaction of economic integration and some typical regional policies in a new economic geography model with three regions of different size. The policies analysed are when the government controls the location of industry through location permits, infrastructure...

Despite substantial regional expenditures at both national and community level, European regional policies do not appear to deliver. The evidence suggests that neither efficiency gains nor reduced regional inequalities are attained. If there is any positive impact at all, then it is at the most...