IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa02p210.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Beyond the blue banana? Structural change in Europe´s geo-economy

Author

Listed:
  • Hospers, Gert-Jan

Abstract

For centuries, the so-called 'Blue Banana' has shown the greatest development potential in Europe's geo-economy. This metropolitan area, extending from the north-west of London through Germany to Milan, traditionally has been a breeding place for entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe. Recently, however, commentators have identified the 'Sunbelt' from Milan to Valencia and - anticipating the coming enlargement of the European Union - the 'Yellow Banana' from Paris to Warsaw as the growth poles of the future. Ultimately, it is claimed, these emerging centres of gravity may even take over the dominant position of the Blue Banana in the European economy. In this paper we explore the question how likely it is that the contemporary structure of Europe's economic-geographical system is really changing in the next decades. After a short discussion of the 'stylized facts' of unbalanced growth in Europe we develop a framework in which insights from structural change theory and economic geography are combined. In particular, we link the literature on sectoral changes from industry to services in time with spatial concepts such as urbanization economies, institutional inertia and geographical path dependency. With the help of this framework it is argued that over time the techno-economic and institutional structure of specialized regions may become locked-in into rigid trajectories. Simultaneously, we suggest that regions with sectoral diversity provide the flexibility which is needed to absorb new techno-economic developments and to develop 'new combinations'. This framework of structural change in time and space is applied to the European context. We find that it is particularly the Blue Banana that may face a favourable future. The fact is that thanks to its diversified structure this area rather than the Sunbelt and the Yellow Banana can build on strong urbanization economies. Therefore, we expect that the Blue Banana despite its industrial tradition continues to be the major economic growth axis in the European service economy. In this line of reasoning, also European structural policy may take on a different aspect: rather than aiming for regional balance the policy objective might be striving for an optimal economic, institutional and infrastructural connection of less developed regions to the Blue Banana. In this way, spread effects from cities in the Blue Banana to connected areas are facilitated, which ultimately may contribute to a less unbalanced growth of Europe's geo-economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Hospers, Gert-Jan, 2002. "Beyond the blue banana? Structural change in Europe´s geo-economy," ERSA conference papers ersa02p210, European Regional Science Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/210.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Ron A. Boschma & Jan G. Lambooy, 1999. "Evolutionary economics and economic geography," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 411-429.
    3. Robert J. Barro & Paul Romer, 1993. "Economic Growth (1992)," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number barr93-1.
    4. Bjørn Asheim & Eric Clark, 2001. "Creativity and Cost in Urban and Regional Development in the 'New Economy'," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(7), pages 805-811, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sotiris Zygiaris, 2009. "Regional Innovation System Failures And Highlights," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 3(2), pages 54-76, DECEMBER.
    2. Milan Trifković & Miroslav Kuburić & Žarko Nestorović & Goca Jovanović & Milan Kekanović, 2021. "The Attractiveness of Urban Complexes: Economic Aspect and Risks of Environmental Pollution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-13, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 1996. "The Poverty of Nations: A Quantitative Exploration," NBER Working Papers 5414, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Paulo B. Brito, 2022. "The dynamics of growth and distribution in a spatially heterogeneous world," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 21(3), pages 311-350, September.
    3. Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Chattopadhyay, Pradip, 2003. "Volatility and growth in developing economies: some numerical results and empirical evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 267-295, March.
    4. Folster, Stefan & Henrekson, Magnus, 1999. "Growth and the public sector: a critique of the critics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 337-358, June.
    5. Crafts, Nicholas, 2004. "Productivity Growth in the Industrial Revolution: A New Growth Accounting Perspective," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(2), pages 521-535, June.
    6. Renato BALDUCCI, 2003. "Public Spending and Economic Growth," Working Papers 183, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    7. Thorvaldur Gylfason & Gylfi Zoega, 2006. "Natural Resources and Economic Growth: The Role of Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 1091-1115, August.
    8. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 1999. "Productive Government Expenditure In A Stochastically Growing Economy," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 544-570, December.
    9. Elvira Sapienza, 2009. "FDI and Growth in Central and Southern Eastern Europe," Quaderni DSEMS 12-2009, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    10. M.Rosaria Alfano & A. Laura Baraldi, 2008. "The design of electoral rules and their impact on economic growth: the Italian case," Working Papers 3_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    11. Stefano Basilico & Holger Graf, 2023. "Bridging technologies in the regional knowledge space: measurement and evolution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1085-1124, September.
    12. Koen Frenken & Frank G. van Oort & Thijs Verburg & Ron A. Boschma, 2004. "Variety and regional economic growth in the Netherlands," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0502, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2004.
    13. Barot, Bharat, 2002. "Growth and Business Cycles for the Swedish Economy 1963-1999," Working Papers 79, National Institute of Economic Research.
    14. Suri, Tavneet & Boozer, Michael A. & Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances, 2011. "Paths to Success: The Relationship Between Human Development and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 506-522, April.
    15. Juncal Cunado & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Fernando Pérez de Gracia, 2006. "Additional Empirical Evidence on Real Convergence: A Fractionally Integrated Approach," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(1), pages 67-91, April.
    16. Dimitrios PAPARAS & Christian RICHTER & Alexandros PAPARAS, 2015. "Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth, Empirical Evidence in European Union," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 2(4), pages 239-268, December.
    17. Philippe De Vreyer & Javier Herrera & Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, 2002. "Consumption growth and spatial poverty traps: an analysis of the effects of social services and community infrastructures on living standards in rural Peru," Working Papers DT/2002/17, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation), revised Oct 2003.
    18. Bosi, Stefano & Magris, Francesco, 2005. "Fiscal policy and fluctuations in a monetary model of growth," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 110-118, June.
    19. Sabau, Gabriela L., 2010. "Know, live and let live: Towards a redefinition of the knowledge-based economy -- sustainable development nexus," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1193-1201, April.
    20. Michael Benarroch & Manish Pandey, 2017. "The Impact of Imports and Exports on the Size and Composition of Government Expenditures," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(3), pages 57-68, March.

    More about this item

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Modrý banán in Wikipedia Czech

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.