"Obama's Nobel Headache" in Newsweek.

Paul Krugman

Here's an article about him and his work. And also a description of his contributions.
I will always remember the excitement I had when I first read about New Economic Geography (which was initiated by Paul) and then decided, right at that moment, that it would be one of my research interests in the future.

Congratulations! Paul!
It means a lot to me too.

I was notified today to pick up my book on reserve, The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade, written by Masahisa Fujita, Paul Krugman, Anthony J. Venables.

Here is the full introduction. Although it might sound difficult for beginners, some of the questions asked inside are interesting enough for every ordinary person to think about. Below is a brief excerpt to give you a peek at the study of "new economic geography " :

Around the corner from the English National Opera lies St. Martin's Court, a short street occupied mainly by sellers of secondhand books and prints. It is a reasonable location for such shops, but there are no doubt other locations that would serve as well. Why, then, have the shops' owners chosen to be there? To be near each other. No doubt there is some interesting story about how that clusters of book and print shops originally became established, but what sustains it now is a sort of circular logic: Potential customers come to St. Martin's Court because they expect to find a range of shops to browse in, and shops locate there because they know they will have access to a large pool of potential customers.

As attentive readers may notice, the circular logic is similar to what the "Qwerty model" (mentioned in earlier articles) is trying to explain--the factors that "lock" some countries in economic growth and "lock" others out.

Early on, I found out--and wrote on this blog--that Paul Krugman did some interesting research regarding economic geography.

Today, in Fashion and Geography, he points out that Zara's marketing strategy is actually working against globalization. His excerpt from WSJ:

Stores are stocked with new designs twice a week. Collections are small and often sell out, creating an air of exclusivity and cutting down on the need for markdowns. The company ships clothes straight from the factory to stores. Unlike competitors who manufacture most of their wares in Asia, Inditex makes two-thirds of its goods in Spain and nearby countries such as Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. The retailer says the higher labor costs are offset by the flexibility of having production close to its warehouses and distribution centers, which are all in Spain.

I wonder if we can find examples of similar strategy here in Taiwan. I'll try looking around.