Quantitative Economic Geography and Economic History

The chapter revises those areas of research in which economic history and economic geography come together fundamentally, making use of the theoretical framework developed by New Economic Geography. Particularly, we first analyze the role played by economic geography in helping us to understand the patterns of production specialization and the remuneration and mobility of the factors of production (capital and labor) at different points in history. Secondly, we look at how these aspects may have been affected over time from a more dynamic perspective, taking into account the possible effects generated by technological and institutional changes and shocks such as military conflicts and border changes. In other words, we analyze possible variations in the patterns described in the previous section as a result of changes characteristic of the history of societies. Next, we focus on how the joint consideration of economic geography and history may lead to a better understanding of the differences that exist between income levels across space. Finally, a review of the literature that – from the perspective of historical economic geography – seeks to analyze the predictions emerging from these types of models as regards the evolution of territorial inequality, also noting the advances that have been made in the reconstruction of macroeconomic aggregates on a regional scale from economic history, is provided. The chapter ends with a brief section detailing the limits and challenges of this type of approach and speculating as to which path future research might follow.