Cover -- Title Page -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Data Notes -- Data notes -- Geography in motion: The Report at a GlanceȔDensity, Distance, and Division -- Seeing development in 3-D -- Unbalanced growth, inclusive development -- Economic integration-local, national, and international -- Urbanization -- Territorial development -- Regional integration -- Overview -- Introduction -- Place and prosperity -- Bumps, curves, and spills -- The problem-at three geographic scales -- The three dimensions of development -- The world is not flat -- Economic production becomes more concentrated -- Local concentration (in towns and cities) happens quickly -- National concentration (in leading areas) continues for longer -- International concentration (in some world regions and leading countries) continues for a while -- Living standards diverge before converging -- Locally, convergence in basic living standards sets in early -- Nationally, divergence in living standards happens quickly, but convergence is slower -- Internationally, divergence in incomes continues a while, and convergence is slowest -- The world is different today, but the past provides useful lessons -- Bigger cities -- Wider markets -- More borders -- Markets shape the economic landscape -- The realm of "agglomeration economies" -- Migrating to profit from proximity -- Specializing and trading as transport costs fall -- Putting development in place -- A rule of thumb for economic integration -- Efficient and inclusive urbanization -- Area (territorial) development policies that integrate nations -- Regional integration to increase access to global markets -- Navigating This Report -- Introduction -- Scope -- Terms -- Spatial scales-area, country, and region -- Spatial dimensions-density, distance, and division.

Instruments for integration-institutions, infrastructure, and interventions -- Structure -- The facts -- The insights -- The policy framework -- Geography in motion: Overcoming Distance in North America -- Size and American economic ascendancy -- Convergence in living standards -- Rising density, falling disparities, persisting divisions -- PART 1 Seeing Development in 3-D -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1 Density -- Introduction -- Defining density -- The economic world is not flat -- An evolving portfolio of places -- Measuring density -- Economic concentration-the richer, the denser -- Historically, rapidly rising concentration, then a leveling off -- Again today, rapidly rising concentration, then a leveling off -- Local 1-square kilometer areas -- Administratively defined areas -- 1° longitude by 1° latitude -- Urban areas of countries -- A portfolio of bigger and denser places -- Convergence-rural-urban and within cities -- Rural-urban disparities in well-being-first wide, then narrow -- Slums-divergence and convergence within cities -- What's different for today's developers? -- The pace and pattern of urbanization is similar -- The volume of urbanization is greater for today's developers -- Urbanites today enjoy both higher private earnings and better public services -- CHAPTER 2 Distance -- Introduction -- Defining distance -- As the crow flies? Distance as an economic, not Euclidean, concept -- Locations close to markets have a natural advantage -- The natural way to reduce distance is for people to migrate -- Density in leading areas, distance for lagging areas -- Lagging areas have higher poverty rates, leading areas have more poor people -- Economic concentration in leading areas -- Rapidly rising concentration in the early stages of development, then a leveling -- International comparisons of concentration today support historical trends.

Administrative areas -- Statistical areas -- Land areas -- Divergence, then convergence-between leading and lagging areas -- For today's developed countries, spatial inequalities in income and welfare rose early, followed by slow convergence -- For developing countries, spatial disparities in living standards between subnational areas first rise and then fall with development -- Fast-growing countries see spatial disparities in income widen -- Some relatively closed or middle-income countries had incomes converge -- As incomes diverge, health and education converge -- What's different for today's developers? -- Global markets are more important -- Openness matters for distance -- The costs of transport and telecommunications matter more -- Access to knowledge is easier -- CHAPTER 3 Division -- Introduction -- Defining division -- How countries maintain divisions -- Goods and services -- Capital -- People -- Ideas -- Some divisions are beyond the control of individual countries -- Landlocked -- Country size -- Sea-locked countries -- Ethnic and cultural divisions -- Economic costs of conflict and territorial disputes -- Economic concentration -- How did this concentration come about? -- How did the rest of the world do? -- Why does this matter? The importance of market access -- Divergence, then convergence -- General improvements -- Considerable income divergence between the richest and poorest countries, but improvements in health and education -- Some income convergence within faster-growing regions -- Geography, globalization, and development -- How much does geography matter today? -- First-nature geography -- Second-nature geography -- Development is contagious, tending to spread across regions -- New regions of growth and wealth can emerge -- What do we learn from this? -- Size matters a lot.

Few countries have lifted their economic fortunes based only on exports of primary commodities -- Manufacturing remains important -- Openness helps a lot-but it has to be introduced with care -- Openness and integration are most beneficial for smaller or landlocked countries whose access to world markets depends on neighboring countries -- What's different for today's developers? -- Geography in motion: Overcoming Division in Western Europe -- PART 2 Shaping Economic Geography -- Part Introduction -- CHAPTER 4 Scale Economies and Agglomeration -- Introduction -- A guide to scale economies -- Internal scale economies are higher in heavier industries -- Localization economies arise from input-sharing and competition within the industry -- Urbanization economies come from industrial diversity that fosters innovation -- A different realm -- As producers seek scale economies, agriculture disperses but manufacturing clusters -- Services become even more densely clustered than manufacturing -- Cities facilitate scale economies of all types -- Agglomeration economies are amplified by density and attenuated by distance -- A portfolio of places -- Recognizing scale economies: recent theoretical advances -- Smaller cities specialize, receiving industries as they mature and relocate -- Large cities diversify, incubate new ideas and firms, and push out mature industries -- Activities that cities specialize in are stable, and so are city-size distributions -- Apprehension of market forces -- A misplaced fear of urbanization -- A misplaced preoccupation with size, not function, of cities -- A misplaced fascination with "new" cities -- CHAPTER 5 Factor Mobility and Migration -- Introduction -- From mercantilism to globalization to autarky, and back again -- Capital flows-up sharply since the 1970s.

Labor flows across borders-blocked for much of the twentieth century -- Internal labor mobility-growing rapidly, despite restrictions -- Skills-the motor of internal and international migration -- Labor mobility: learning from a generation of analysis -- Migration theory now recognizes the benefits of agglomeration -- Migration, growth, and welfare: divergence or convergence? -- Labor migration promotes growth -- In today's developed countries, leading and lagging areas converged -- Convergence, after divergence, in developing countries -- Pulled or pushed? -- International brain drains-or gains? -- Practical policies for managing migration -- CHAPTER 6 Transport Costs and Specialization -- Introduction -- What has happened: two centuries of experience -- Domestic transport -- International transport -- Increasing "transport intensity" and intraindustry trade in the modern era -- Road transport costs -- Rail freight costs -- Air transport costs -- Maritime transport costs -- Small declines in transport costs, but a big easing in trade friction -- Logistics, time, and international trade -- Communication costs -- Transport costs and scale economies: two decades of analysis -- Falling transport costs create bumpy economic landscapes -- Falling transport costs increase trade between neighbors -- Falling transport costs lead to concentration within countries -- What to do: transport policies in the developing world -- Regulating transport to get the benefits of scale economies -- National efforts and regional coordination to facilitate trade -- Addressing the negative externalities of transport -- Congestion -- Emissions -- Pollution -- Accidents -- Transport: an increasingly important sector -- Geography in motion: Distance and Division in East Asia -- East Asia's age of isolationism -- Fifty years of Asian integration.

The integration ahead-the twin challenges of distance and division.