RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
THE BLOUSTEIN SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND PUBLIC POLICY
970:645 Spring 2012
Regional Development
Tuesday: 6:10 – 8:40 p.m.
Room: CSB-170
Prof. H. Amirahmadi
Phone: 609-509-2999
hooshang@amirahmadi.com
www.amirahmadi.com
COURSE CONTENTS
This seminar investigates theories and strategies of regional development worldwide and offers
insights into new theoretical directions and alternative strategies. Conventional, critical,
institutional, and most recent hybrid perspectives are included. Implications of recent global
changes, both in the East and West, for regional development will also be covered.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
In addition to weekly reading assignments and active class participation, students are required to
make two class presentations using the assigned readings (please consult the instructor). Students
are also required to write two critical essays based on their class presentations (3-5 pages). There
will be a mid-term exam (week 8) and a final exam (week 14). Distribution of final grade is as
follows: each class presentation and corresponding essay: 20 points, each exam: 25 points, and
class participation 10 points (absence from class is considered lack of participation, while
bringing new articles, newspaper clips, etc. to the class is highly valued).
TOPICAL OUTLINE
1. Origins of Regional Development Thought
2. Place, Development and Prosperity
3. Seeing Development in 3-D (Density, Distance, Division)
4. Forces Shaping Economic Geography and Regional Development
5. Regional Self-Balance, Imbalance, and Uneven Growth Theories
6. Comparative Advantage, Trade and Stages of Growth Theories
7. Territorial and Institutional Growth Theories
8. Regional Production and Agglomeration Theories
9. Knowledge and Sustainable Regional Development Policy
10. Institutions and Regional Development Policy
1. Supply-Side and Demand-Driven Regional Development Strategies
2. Regional Planning and Export-Led Development Strategies
3. Growth Pole and Territorial Production Complexes
4. Regional Policy Instruments: Incentive versus Control
6. Regional Specialization and Integration
7. Reframing the Policy Debates and New Directions
READING LIST
Readings for this course are selected from the following three books and more! Students must
buy one of these books as indicated below. Readings from other sources will be provided on
Sakai. For each class, I have listed the required readings and readings from which student must
select their class presentations.
1. World Bank. 2009. World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography.
Washington, DC: World Bank.
2. Pike, Andy, Andres Rodriguez-Pose and John Tomaney. 2006. Local and Regional
development London and New York: Routledge. (MUST BE PURCHASED)
3. Capello, Roberta and Peter Nijkamp. 2009. Handbook of Regional Growth and
Development Theories, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, US: Edward Elgar.
Week 1: Course Overview
No required readings.
Week 2: Origins of Regional Thought and the Role of Place in Development
World Bank, “Overview,” pp. 1-32.
Gore, Charles. 1984. Regions in question, NY: Methuen, pp. 175-210.
Slater, David, 1989, “Fundamental Issues in the Development of Regional Analysis,” in
Territory and State Power in Latin America, New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 3-29.
Week 3: Diversity, Distance and Division in Economic Geography
World Bank, “Seeing Development in 3-D,” pp. 47-124.
Capello, R., “Space, growth and development,” in Capello Nijkamp, “pp. 33-52.
Week 4: Forces Shaping Economic Geography and Regional Development
Pike, Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, “Introduction: Local and Regional Development,”
pp. 3-22.
World Bank, “Scale Economies and Agglomeration,” pp. 126-145; “Factor Mobility and
Migration,” pp. 146-169; and “Transport Cost and Specialization,” pp. 170-183
McCann, P. and F. von Oort, 2009, “Theories of agglomeration and regional
development: a historical review,” in Capello and Nijkamp, pp. 19-32.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Gordon, D.M., 1984, "Capitalist Development and the History of American Cities," in
William W. Tabb, and L. Sawers, Marxism and the Metropolis, NY: Oxford University
Press, pp. 25-55.
Browett, J., 1984, "On the Necessity and Inevitability of Uneven Spatial Development
under Capitalism," in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 8, No.
2, pp. 155-174.
Week 5: Concepts and Theories of Local and Regional development:
 Regional Self-Balance, Imbalance, and Uneven Growth Theories
 Comparative Advantage, Trade and Stages of Growth Theories
 Territorial and Institutional Growth Theories
Pike, Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, “Concepts and Theories of Local and Regional
Development,” pp. 61-122.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Gore, C. 1984, "Regional Imbalance as a Policy Problem," pp. 25-49.
Camagni, Roberto, “Territorial Capital and Regional Development,” in Capello and
Nijkamp, pp. 118-132.
Week 6: Theories of Regional Production and Agglomeration
Amin, A. and Thrift, N. 1992, "Neo-Marshallian Nodes in Global Networks",
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 16, No.2., pp.571-587.
Garnsey, E., 1998, “The genesis of the high technology milieu: a study in complexity,”
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 22, No. 3, Sept., pp. 361-377.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Gore, C., 1984. Regions in Question, London: Methuen, Chapter 3, “Urban-industrial
growth pole strategies and the diffusion of modernization,” pp. 81-117.
Tsui-Auch, Lai Si, 1999, “Regional Production Relationships and Developmental
Impacts: A Comparative Study of Three Production Networks,” International Journal of
Urban and Regional Research (June), pp.345-359.
Week 7: Knowledge and Regional development
OECD, “Innovation, Learning and Regions in the Knowledge-Based Economy (Chap.
2)” and “Policy Principles: Creating Learning Cities and Regions (Chap. 7),” in Cities
and Regions in the New Learning Economy.
Audretsch, D. and T. Aldridge, “Knowledge spillover, entrepreneurship and regional
development,” in Capello and Nijkamp, pp. 201-210.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Amirahmadi, H. and Wallace, C., 1995. ”Information technology, the organization of
production, and regional development,” Environment and Planning A, Vol. 27, pp. 17451775.
Amirahmadi, H. and Staff, G., 1993. “Science Parks: A Critical Assessment,” Journal of
Planning Literature, Vol. 8, No. 2 (November), pp. 107-123.
Malecki, E. J., 1983. “Technology and Regional Development: A Survey,” in
International Regional Science Review. Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 89-125
Week 8: Mid-term Exam
Week 9: Institutions and Regional Development
Pike, Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, “Institutions: Government and Governance,” pp.
123-152.
Lakshmanan, T.R. and K. Button, “Institutions and Regional Development,” in Capello
and Nijkamp, pp. 443460.
OECD, “Governance Contexts and Management Frameworks (Chap. 1)” and “Territorial
Governance in a Devolved Context,” in Territorial Outlook (2001).
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Amin, Ash, 1999. “An Institutionalist Perspective on Regional Economic Development,”
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. June, pp. 365-378.
Duncan, S and Savage, M., 1989, “Space, Scale and Locality,” Antipode, 21:3, pp. 179206.
Week 10: Endogenous and Exogenous Resources in Regional Development
Pike, Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, “Mobilizing Endogenous Potential,” p. 153-174.
Pike, Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, ‘Attracting and Embedding Exogenous Resources,”
pp. 175-194.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Perloff, H. and L. Wingo, Jr., “Natural Resource Endowment and Regional Economic
Growth,” in J. Friedmann and William Alonso, eds., Regional Development, Cambridge:
MIT Press, pp. 215-239.
Tiebout, Charles M., 1964, "Exports and Regional Economic Growth," in J. Friedmann
and William Alonso, eds., Regional Development, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 256-265
(includes "A Reply" by North and a "Rejoinder" by Tiebout).
Week 11: Regional Planning, Sustainability and the State
Gore, C., 1984. Regions in Question, London: Methuen. Chapter 5, “Neo-populist
regional development strategies,” pp. 146-171, and “The state, development and regional
planning practice” pp. 236-264.
Alden, J., and R. Morgan, 1974. Regional Planning: A comprehensive View. NY: Wiley,
pp. 123-160.
Hooshang Amirahmadi, 1986, "Regional Planning in Iran: A Survey of Problems and
Policies," The Journal of Developing Areas, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 501-530.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Hooshang Amirahmadi, 1988, "The State and Territorial Social Justice in PostRevolutionary Iran," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 13, no.1,
pp. 92-120.
Batabyal, A. and P. Nijkamp, “Sustainable development and regional growth,” in Capello
and Nijkamp, pp. 282-301.
Week 12: Regional Policy: Incentive versus Control
Dijk, van Jouke , et.al., “Regional Policy: rationale, foundations, and measurements of its
effects,” in Capello and Nijkamp, pp. 461-478.
Abreu, Maria and Maria Savona, “New Regional Policies for Less Developed Areas: the
case of India,” in Capello and Nijkamp, pp. 479-494.
Friedrich, P. and Chang Woon Num, “Economic decline and public intervention: do
special economic zones matter?,” in Capello and Nijkamp, pp. 495-523 (ignore the
mathematical equations).
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
Armstrong, Harvey and Jim Taylor, 1985, "The Origins and Objectives of Regional
Policy," "Regional Policy Instruments," and "New Directions in Regional Policy," in
Harvey Armstrong and Jim Taylor, Regional Economics & Policy, op. cit., pp. 171-224.
Demko, G.J. and Fuchs, R. J., 1984, “A Comparison of Regional Development Policy
Instruments and Measures in Eastern and Western Europe,” in Demko, J.L., ed., Regional
Development, pp. 83-97.
Weaver, Clyde, 1984, "The Rise and Fall of Regional Policy," in C. Weaver, Regional
Development and the Local Community, op. cit., pp. 91-111.
Week 13: New Directions and the Practice of Regional Development
World Bank,2009. “Concentration without Congestion,” pp. 198-229; “Unity, Not
Uniformity,” pp. 230-259; and “Winners without Borders,” pp. 260-282. In World
Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography.
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS: Two students
A Critical Review of “Local and Regional Development in Practice,” in Pike,
Rodriguez-Pose and Tomaney, pp. 198-272 (this reports on case studies of the application
of various theories and strategies of regional development).
Week 14: Final Exam