Geography and Trade (Gaston Eyskens Lectures)

Rating:
Summary: Its a start.
Review: It is great that Krugman is promoting space to the world of Economics but he hasn't brought much to the table of economic geography that wasn't already there. However, as the author's knowledge increases in the subject area, geographers would be advised to keep tabs on his work as the field is lacking in formal models.

Rating:
Summary: Good summary treatment, overdue systems view, but wait....
Review: That it has taken an economist to highlight the role of space in spatial economic development is an indication of the failure of geographers to do the same with mathematical models (they've had more time to do it...). Regional science has long held the view that space matters, yet geography has not come up with sufficiently rich models to explain why. Dr Krugman has provided a valueble service to making geography matter more in ecomonics. Perhaps it is time for economics to matter more in space?

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but incomplete (and with surprising ommisions)
Review: This small book (a bit expensive at 25 bucks) has some interesting things to say about location and economic activity (though I wished there would have been more on the way of examples). It is surprising, though, that Krugman never mentions one reason why labor mobility it's not (and, in all probability, will never be) as high in the European Union as it is in the United States: the fact that European workers speak different languages (OK, many speak english, but many don't, and one almost surely is bound to be less good working in a second language than in a native one).