We analyse the internal spatial wage and employment structures of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, using regional data for 1996–2000. A new economic geography model predicts wage gradients and specialization patterns that are smoothly related to the regions’ relative market access. As an alternative, we formulate a ‘Comecon hypothesis’, according to which wages and se...

One of the most striking feature of the space-economy is that cities form a hierarchical system exhibiting some regularity in terms of their size and the array of goods they supply. In order to show how such a hierarchical system may emerge, we consider a model with monopolistically competitive markets for the industrial sectors. As transport costs steadily decrease from large values, the urban...

Were the new economic geography forces for industry agglomeration and dispersion at work in the movement of industry in pre-1931 Britain where transport costs were falling? This paper examines the issue empirically using a general model that nests the Heckscher-Ohlin factor endowment with new economic geography models. The evidence suggests that while the location of pre-1931 British industry w...

New Economic Geography models describe a cumulative process of spatial agglomeration. Firms tend to cluster in locations with good access to demand, and similarly, workers are drawn to regions with good access to sources of supply. This paper provides an empirical assessment of this forward linkage that relates labour migrations to the geography of production through real wage differentials. In...