Curriculum Why Places Prosper: Regional Economics
Why Places Prosper: Regional Economics
Why some regions thrive while others fall behind - economic geography, left-behind places, place-based policies, border regions, small towns, anchor institutions and the power of roads.
- Why Some Places Prosper and Others Don't The main reasons incomes differ so much between regions within the same country, from geography and history to skills and connections. 📄 Read-aloud
- Krugman's New Economic Geography How Paul Krugman explained why economic activity concentrates in a few places, creating cores and peripheries, work that won him the Nobel prize. 📄 Read-aloud
- Left-Behind Places What happens to regions when their main industries decline, why recovery is slow, and the social and political consequences. 📄 Read-aloud
- Place-Based Policies: Helping Places or People? The debate over whether governments should target help at struggling regions or at people wherever they live, and evidence from programmes like the Tennessee Valley Authority. 📄 Read-aloud
- Do Poor Regions Catch Up? Whether poorer regions within countries grow faster and close the gap with richer ones, evidence from Europe and India, and why convergence has slowed. 📄 Read-aloud
- Border Regions and Cross-Border Economies Why regions along national borders are often poorer or richer than expected, and how open or closed borders shape their economies. 📄 Read-aloud
- Why Places Prosper: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on regional differences, economic geography, left-behind places, place-based policy and convergence. 5 questions
- The Rural-Urban Divide Why incomes, services and opportunities differ between cities and the countryside, and how the divide shapes development and politics. 📄 Read-aloud
- Small Towns and Mid-Sized Cities The economic role of smaller cities between villages and megacities, why they matter for development, and the challenges they face. 📄 Read-aloud
- Universities and Hospitals as Anchor Institutions How large, rooted institutions like universities and hospitals support local economies, attract talent and can help regions grow. 📄 Read-aloud
- Resource Towns and Ghost Towns How towns built around mines, oil fields or single industries boom and bust, and how some manage to diversify before resources run out. 📄 Read-aloud
- China's Regional Development How China's coastal regions surged ahead after reform, the resulting gaps with inland provinces, and the policies to develop the west and centre. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Connectivity Reshapes Regions How new highways, railways and internet links change where businesses locate and how regions grow, with evidence from India's Golden Quadrilateral. 📄 Read-aloud