Economic Geography - Book Report/Review Example

Moreover, it deals with the location and environment-centered theories and techniques for studying trade, and economic growth. In Hausmann's article, the discipline was used to contrast developed countries from poor ones and to explain the richness gap between the two groups. Even without challenging the truth of the data given in the article, one can not dismiss the fact that the depth of the article did not touch the underlying reason of the experienced poverty in many countries. Geography may be one of the reasons why some countries remain to be poor, but it is not the reason why they are down in poverty in the first place.

To start with, poverty is rooted in more than one aspect and in turn, is the causative agent of many social problems. Globally accepted causes of poverty are divided into acute or entrenched determinants based on the longevity and depth of the effects. The acute causes of poverty include warfare, agricultural cycles and natural disasters. On the other hand, entrenched factors include long colonial histories, the disproportional centralization of power, corruption, long term warfare, environmental degradation and social inequality.

In contrasting the two groups, the entrenched factors cause more debilitating poverty yet they are the controllable ones. Thus, it can be argued that with correct policy making and efficient implementation, poverty in any country can be decreased, if not totally eliminated.On the other hand, the article consisted of the different reasons why geography is supposedly the cause of many nation's poverty - transportation costs, agricultural productivity, R&D capabilities, national borders. To argue against, points will be raised vis a vis each one of these.

Hausmann considered it unfortunate that transportation costs are most of the time determined by a country's geography. Accordingly, he noted that land transportation is especially costly for landlocked countries whose products need to cross borders. However, he failed to include the fact that even transportation fees are subject to economic's supply and demand. The bulk of the cost of transportation is added by national policies that aimed to generate income for the country where the goods are being imported and depending on the type of good (necessity vs. luxury), with the necessary ones with less taxation than their luxurious counterparts.

In the article, it is noted that the divergence in agricultural productivity between the developed and developing world is grounded in dramatically different R&D capabilities. However, looking at the development of technology in the historical perspective, the lack of natural resources drove the developed countries into exerting more efforts at innovation. Since they are not blessed with abundant materials, they focused more on adding values and innovating raw materials imported from other countries.

Moreover, the research and development capabilities of a nation is also tied down to abundance in nature. In example, tropical countries are abundant with plant life, thus most of the products from such countries are developed from their green lands.Lastly, the author argues that it is more important to devote time and resources to transportation infrastructure since this