Michael Storper

Biography

Michael Storper's research and teaching focuses on five very closely related topics: - Economic geography , that is, the forces that spatially organize the economy. These forces are numerous and diverse, ranging from technology and structures in the industrial and market sectors to institutions and historical and political developments. Michael Storper examines in particular the persistent tension between the geographical concentration of the activities on the one hand and the specialization of regional and national economies on the other, and the spread of economic activities over wider geographical areas, with the current wave of globalization of activities. - Globalization, that is to say the less and less local scale in which the economic processes and the corollary changes occur that this entails on the relevant scale of the evolution of some of the associated processes relating to the scale of management businesses, markets and institutions. Michael Storper studies the processes of localization of these activities and their impact on the geographical distribution of these activities and the composition of the economies and their evolution process at different territorial scales. Economic geography provides insight into issues of inequality, polarization, and spatial convergence and divergence. - Technology, as a force shaping economic geography and globalization. By changing the structure of transport and commercial costs, technological change affects geography. Its impact is multiple, complex and often indirect. Michael Storper therefore studies technological skills at different geographical levels, the geography of innovation and its effects on the development process of regions and nations. - Regions , especially urban areas. The composition and functioning of regional economies, their specializations, their labor markets, and the processes of physical and social development depend largely on the geographical concentration of activities. - Economic development, if geography is structured by development, the latter is in its turn structured by the vast economic-geographic forces. Economic geography then provides a comparative analysis of economic development and sheds light on the phenomena of geographical differentiation between institutions, and the way in which it affects development.

Research Interest

Economic geography, Globalization, Technology, Regions and Economic development