Does Space Finally Matter? The Position of New Economic Geography in Economic Journals

This paper presents an empirical analysis about the position new economic geography plays in economics. In a theoretical review we discuss recent developments in economics, like new trade theory, endogenous growth theory, and new economic geography and analyze their implications for spatial structure. The paper presents the basic components of these theories and points out their commonalties. This shows that all these theories are based on assumptions that lead to spatial structure, i.e. differences in the spatial allocation of economic activities.
In the empirical investigation we use the Social Science Citation Index to analyze citations of seminal contributions in various types of journals and the rate with which geographical content appears in economic journals. As we show, spatial topics still play only a marginal role in economics. Economists it seems are still reluctant to accept the spatial implications of their own theoretical models.