by civilsday: Image courtesy
Introduction: Geography is the study of topography, climatic conditions, countrys location. Location of a country is a part of geography which is usually taught in schools & colleges alike. Geographical location is very often an underrated factor that decides the economic status of a country. Geographical location is a place or position that is usually defined by the geography of the region surrounding it. Usually it is expressed in terms of latitude-longitude,with reference to other places, in the form of directions to name a few. Geographical location is also important as it gives us an understanding of the topographies that surround the particular area whether its surrounded by mountains, plateaus, deserts, hills or all of the above. The development plan invariably differs from the place to place & from geography to geography as well.
Explaination in economic terms:The geography is an important factor as it acts as a very important fundamental block that decides the nature of economy which is often undervalued when econometric analysis or even simple research is conducted on any vertical of the subject let it be: development economics or even public finance.
Geography acts both as a stimulant as well as an obstacle when it comes to development & economic growth of a region. It has a direct bearing on the marketing ability of products, the production process, the sectors where the economic growth can be targetted also shifts considerably, the types of regional disparities that happens also changes in every geographical location/area, it also impacts what kind of infrastructural development needs to happen in a particular area it also decides what kind of agricultural crops should be grown in the region at least for a short period of time.
It also impacts what kind of companies are operating as well as willing to invest in that particular place & the geographical location also decides whether the investment needs to be short term or long term.It also decides what kind of budgetary allocation should be done whether it has to be a conservative or an aggressive budget. For example: A place like Rewa,MP can afford to have a metro whose cost of laying down railway lines will be less even if it has any infrastructural challenges it wont be as huge as a technical challenge as laying down of metro line in a mountainous region like lets say Uttarakasi,Uttarakhand in this case. The best example of geographical location discrimination can be seen in the work,efforts,cost & time took to lay down India's one of the first technological infrastructural superpiece namely delhi metro & one of India's toughest rail line Konkan railway was built by the same legend named Shri. E. Sreedharan.
The geographical location also acts as an important factor on how much impact will climate change have on the local economy of the region. It also acts as an important raw material using which factors of production can be applied to work to name a few. It is also a factor that decides what kind of developmental model given by premier economists like Gunnar Myrdal, Harvey Leibenstien, Adam Smith, Stopler-Samuelson theory of International trade or Hecksher-Ohlin theory, in fact the Myrdal theory of circular causation that speaks of geography's impact on the economy but in a very limited sense that speaks only of regional economic disparities that arises due to development of only 1 particular area in a region and its forward-backwash effects.
The geographical location also acts as an important factor of which kind of occupations can be adopted by the people, for example, lets take the case study of 2 cities in India, Mumbai & Shimla, Mumbai is a port city where there are ample opportunities in the port sector and port based development, as Arabian sea is very close to it geographically & doing port based business will be beneficial as cost will be minimised whereas profit will be maximised, whereas in Shimla tourism & defense based development will have more appeal between the people as it will be very natural as well as easy for people to adapt to those kind of industries which they feel comfortable in, this geographical location can be a very strong reason why we can see that some cities in certain parts become IT hubs whereas some become manufacturing hubs of certain goods.
The other important facet that can be considered is the development of IT cities in India, which depends upon 4 major factors: number of engineering colleges,weather aka.geographical location, infrasructure(connectivity specifically) & cost of real estate. These are the prime reasons why IT cities in India are found in the southern or western part of India in cities like Hyderabad,Bengaluru, Mumbai,Pune etc. with the only outlier in this case being the city of Kolkata which is an IT city due to the weather and connectivity reasons that it enjoys as being a metro city of the country. Out of 4 reasons, at least 2 are directly linked to geographically(infrastructure{explained in first para} and weather)which are dependent on geographical location of a city The same IT city is tough to develop in Itanagar, given the geography and the needs of the companies for which geography is both a challenge as well as an opportunity to maybe develop in areas like renewable energy.
Geographic location also impacts how much capital investment will be required to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty, if its located in a place ravaged by floods or natural calamities it will take years of meticulos planning & discipline to come out from such a position. The best example can be Assam which faces the flood wrath of Mahabahu Brahmaputra and of a part of state like Saurashtra of Gujarat which took years to alleviate poverty as geographic location also acted as a barrier. Geography has an direct impact on logistics, marketing, infrastructure, industry type and agriculture as well with tourism being the biggest industry impacted by the subject of geography itself the contrast between tourism figures of Sirmour & Lahaul-Spiti in the state of HP can be attributed to this factor as well, the impact of all these sectors on economy is well documented but the impact of geography on economics is seldomly discussed.
Conclusion: The article is meant to be an eye opener for all students as well as practioners of economics who also need to understand the subject of economics in a very diverse viewpoints for which geography is one of the prime points to understand the subject and do an objective analysis.
Sources:
1. Power of geography by Tim Marshall
2. Gallup, John Luke, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Andrew D. Mellinger. "Geography and economic development." International regional science review 22.2 (1999): 179-232.
3. https://academic.oup.com/wber/article-abstract/26/3/443/1672400
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