Compétitivité territoriale : la recherche d'avantages absolus

The article discusses the concept of territorial competitiveness by examining two subordinate questions: the solidity of the concept of territorial competitiveness itself, in terms of economic theory, and the new bases on which this competitiveness is relying, according to a cognitive-evolutionary type approach. The concept of territorial competitiveness appears theoretically strong not only because of the role played by the territory, supplying the individual firms with competitive instruments connected to the milieu, but especially because of its role in the building processes of knowledge, interpretative codes, models of co-operation and decision on which are founded the innovating courses of the companies. Moreover, economic laws about international trade, which refer to the Ricardian principle of comparative advantage, do not act on the intra-national level, adding to the importance of territorial competitiveness. Thus, for a more disaggregated territorial level, and thus for a more opened economy, not only with regard to trade but also factor mobility, if a certain level or a certain growth rate of competitiveness is not ensured, this economy can be subject to crisis, depopulation, and desertification.