Abstract
How much do borders matter? National governments and international organizations have done much to reduce the artificial barriers that impede trade and other cross-border flows, but are we yet in a position where borders can be considered inconsequential, at least in an economic sense? The impact of decreased border obstacles will likely be most pronounced for firms in former border areas, who are confronted with markets, competitors, and other influences from which the border previously insulated them. Among these influences are technological and economic spill-over effects, which may become more pronounced as the border no longer poses an impenetrable barrier. In border regions, the removal of obstacles at borders could lead to cross-border homogenization such that both profit from integration, or both lose as economic activity relocates to other “core” regions. It is also possible though that one such region becomes a “core” region and acts as a magnet to attract economic activities from the other region, leading to an increased divergence between the two regions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
It takes 2 hours to travel by car from the north of Zeeland to the south of East Flanders.
- 2.
Degree of shortage is for example “low probability,” “low importance,” and “low dependency”. Degree of abundance is for example “high probability,” “high importance,” and “high dependency”.
- 3.
The missing variables were split 207—101 between East Flanders and Zeeland. For more information with respect to missing variables, the reader is referred to Table A2.2.
- 4.
Although, as noted above, Porter argues that education is a government concern he considers the knowledge infrastructure to be a factor condition.
- 5.
Due to the ordinal nature of the data only median scores will be reported.
- 6.
At the 10% level.
- 7.
At the 1% level.
- 8.
Given that favourable tax rates are a recoded variable, a lower score indicates that favourable tax rates are considered less important to the firm.
- 9.
Thus, all scores equal to 1, i.e., cases where a respondent indicates that an item is as present as desired are left out of the analysis.
References
Aghion, P., Bloom, N., Blundell, R., Griffith, R., & Howitt, P. (2005). Competition and innovation: An inverted-U relationship. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(2), 701–728.
Amin, A., & Thrift, N. (1992). Neo-Marshallian nodes in global networks. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16, 571–587.
Amin, A., & Thrift, N. (1995). Institutional issues for the European regions: From markets and plans to socioeconomics and powers of association. Economy and Society, 24(1), 41–66.
Brunet, R. (2002). Lignes de force de l’espace Européen. Mappe Monde, 66(2), 14–19.
Combes, P.-P., & Overman, H. G. (2004). The spatial distribution of economic activities in the European Union. In V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (Eds.), Handbook of regional and urban economics: Cities and geography. North Holland: Elsevier.
Fujita, M., & Thisse, J.-F. (1996). Economics of agglomeration. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 10(4), 339–378.
Fujita, M., Krugman, P., & Venables, T. (1999). The spatial economy—Cities, regions and international trade. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Ghemawat, P. (2001). Distance still matters: The hard reality of global expansion. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 137–147.
Heidenreich, M. (1998). The changing system of European cities and regions. European Planning Studies, 6(3), 315–333.
Hospers, G.-J. (2002). Beyond the blue banana? Structural change in Europe’s geo-economy. Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, 38(2), 76–85.
Kogut, B., & Zander, U. (1992). Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science, 3(3), 383–397.
Krugman, P. (1991). Increasing returns and economic geography. Journal of Political Economy, 99(3), 483–499.
Krugman, P. (1998). What is new about the new economic geography? Oxford Journal of Economic Policy, 14(2), 7–17.
Levitt, T. (1983). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review, 61(3), 92–102.
Lucas, R. E., Jr. (1988). On the mechanics of economic development. Journal of Monetary Economics, 22(1), 3–42.
Malmberg, A., & Maskell, P. (1997). Towards an explanation of industry agglomeration and regional specialization. European Planning Studies, 5, 25–41.
McCann, B., & Folta, T. (2008). Location matters: Where we have been and where we might go in agglomeration research. Journal of Management, 34(3), 532–565.
Moon, H. C., Rugman, A., & Verbeke, A. (1995). The generalised double diamond approach to international competitiveness. In A. M. Rugman, J. van den Broeck, & A. Verbeke (Eds.), Global strategic management (Vol. 5—beyond the diamond). London, UK: JAI Press.
Moon, H. C., Rugman, A., & Verbeke, A. (1998). A generalised double diamond approach to the global competitiveness of Korea and Singapore. International Business Review, 7(2), 135–150.
Neary, J. P. (2001). Of hype and hyperbolas: Introducing the new economic geography. Journal of Economic Literature, 39(2), 536–561.
Ottaviano, G., & Puga, D. (1998). Agglomeration in the global economy: A survey of the ‘New Economic Geography’. The World Economy, 21(6), 707–731.
Ottaviano, G. I. P., & Thisse, J.-F. (2003). Agglomeration and economic geography (CEPR Discussion Paper No. 3838).
Pe’er, A., Vertinsky, I., & King, A. (2008). Who enters, where and why? The influence of capabilities and research endowments on the location choices of de novo enterprises. Strategic Organization, 6(2), 119–149.
Porter, M. E. (1990a). The competitive advantage of nations. New York: Free Press Macmillan.
Porter, M. E. (1990b). The competitive advantage of nations. Harvard Business Review, 68(2), 73–93.
Puga, D. (2002). European regional policies in light of recent location theories. Journal of Economic Geography, 2(4), 373–406.
Rugman, A., & D’Cruz, J. (1993). The ‘double diamond’ model of international competitiveness: The Canadian experience. Management International Review, 33(2), 17–40.
Saxenian, A. (1994). Regional advantage: Culture and competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, P. J., & Hoyler, M. (2000). The spatial order of European cities under conditions of contemporary globalisation. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 91(2), 176–189.
Therborn, G. (1995). European modernity and beyond. The trajectory of European societies 1945–2000. London: Sage.
Thisse, J.-P. (2000). Agglomeration and regional imbalance: Why? And is it bad? EIB Papers, 5(2), 47–67.
Van Den Bulcke, D., Verbeke, A., & Yuan, W. (2009). Handbook on small nations in the global economy open economy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brugman, P., Verbeke, A. (2018). The Persistent Relevance of Transborder (Focal) Regions: The Case of the European Blue Banana. In: Haezendonck, E., Verbeke, A. (eds) Sustainable Port Clusters and Economic Development. Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96658-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96658-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96657-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96658-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)