14.3 Regional development within countries

Question 1

core and periphery concept

Answer 1

core: more urban, government, social elite, financial power, high incomes and more wealth, higher living costs, tertiary/quaternary employment - CBD

periphery: primary industry, low wages, brain drain, little power, low living costs/standards, limited job opportunities

Question 2

spread effects

Answer 2

• felt in Friedman’s upward transition regions
• as costs rise in core, development encouraged in adjacent areas which can enjoy some of core benefits (contacts) without very high costs of property/labour

Question 3

backwash effects

Answer 3

• those which attract capital, jobs and people from periphery to core, leading to even grater imbalance in services and infrastructure

Question 4

what is J.Friedmanns model of regional development?

Answer 4

• world can be divided into four types of regions:
  1. core regions: centres, high innovation/growth, e.g Sao Paulo, Brazil
  2. Upward transition regions: beyond cores, areas of growth spread over small centres rather than in core: semi periphery
  3. Resource-frontier regions: peripheral zones but endowed with resources, e.g in Amazon Basin
  4. downward transition regions: areas now declining because of exhaustion of resources/industrial change - suffering from backwash effects

Criticisms:
- argued uneven development no the inevitable consequence of development but of particular mode of production: capitalist mode

Question 5

cumulative causation effect

Answer 5

Myrdal:
1. Initial advantages:
- raw materials e.g coal/iron ore
- favourable tax breaks
- existing transport links (some natural, e.g river thames)
- lower labour costs
- highly skilled people
- political clout (capital city)

2. Growth/decline
   - upward spiral virtuous cycle: more investment - more jobs - higher income - more tax revenue - better infrastructure - more growth
   - downward spiral vicious cycle: low investment - fewer jobs - lower income - lower tax revenue - poor infrastructure - further decline
3. Backwash and spread effects:
   - backwash: negative affects of core’s growth on periphery: outflows of capital, outmigration of workers/people, firms in periphery unable to compete with core

• spread: positive effects of core’s growth on periphery: core unable to supply all products so demand supply from periphery, core becomes effected by negative externalities (high rents, overcrowding and congestion) firms locate in periphery
• usually has to be helped by gov, e.g improving transport or taxation in core

Question 6

what is regional divergence and convergence?

Answer 6

• increase in economic differences between regions = divergence
• decrease in differences = convergence
• when backwash effects dominate = divergence develop
• spread effects dominate = convergence develops

Question 7

spread effects

Answer 7

positive effects of core’s growth on periphery: core unable to supply all products so demand supply from periphery, core becomes effected by negative externalities (high rents, overcrowding and congestion) firms locate in periphery
- usually has to be helped by gov, e.g improving transport or taxation in core

Question 8

backwash effects

Answer 8

• negative affects of core’s growth on periphery: outflows of capital, outmigration of workers/people, firms in periphery unable to compete with core

Question 9

changes in regional disparity as country develops

Answer 9

Core-periphery concept:
- initially country economically undeveloped = small disparity
- initially cumulative causation + backwash effects can cause development concentrated in core regions
- as country develops more, gov has higher tax revenue so can spread development into peripheral regions and core may experience negative externalities (e.g diseconomies of scale) which encourages spread effects reducing disparities
- unlikely full convergence reached as periphery likely to still have disadvantages and gov still need to prioritise growth as well

Question 10

when may capital, resources and labour move from core to periphery?

Answer 10

1. spread effects: diseconomies of scale/externalities in core may mean businesses relocate to core, e.g higher congestion, higher rent
2. regional development initiatives: infrastructure projects, e.g HS2 and restricting growth in core, e.g taxes
3. urban-rural migration: retirement, or family attracts young migrant to return home with skills/savings to establish new business
4. remittances

Question 11

why may disparities between rich and poor within a country be so hard to overcome?

Answer 11

Social:
- existence of social elite classes
- education access/levels
- population pressure
- impact of HIV/AIDs
- language barriers

Economic:
- gov debt size
- poverty
- inflation
- strength of fiscal structures/institutions

Political:
- presences/absence of vested interests (corruption)