Agglomeration and Competitiveness: From Marshall to Chinitz

Chinitz, like Marshall, is better known as a seminal theorist of the urban supply side than for his useful insights on continental economic regeneration. This paper draws on both themes in Chinitz's work. Assuming that the US trade deficit is a fiscal outcome, the question remains as to why some US industries flourish while others fail. The literature since 1988 emphasises the role of urban-industrial clusters in nurturing globally competitive industries. But Route 128's fall suggests limits to this view. The alternative theme is that continentality (1) provides a menu of economic cultures, and (2) generates feedback to demature declining older regions. Enter Europe's 1992. More generally, world development in the 1990s is seen as being led by three continental systems (including East Asia), and operating via the dance of continents and regions—now the primal economic constructs.