WHATS NEW ABOUT THE NEW ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHY

Since 1990 a new genre of research, often described as the 'new econom ic geography', has emerged. It differs from traditional work in econom ic geography mainly in adopting a modelling strategy that exploits the same technical tricks that hale played such a large role in the 'new trade' and 'new growth' theories; these modelling tricks, while they p reclude any claims of generality, do allow the construction of models that-unlike most traditional spatial analysis-are fully general-equili brium and clearly derive aggregate behaviour from individual maximizat ion. The new work is highly suggestive, particularly in indicating how historical accident can shape economic geography, and how gradual cha nges in underlying parameters can produce discontinuous change in spat ial structure. It also serves the important purpose of placing geograp hical analysis squarely in the economic mainstream.