TERRITORIAL ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: THEORETICAL STUDY OF FUNDAMENTAL APPROACHES
Abstract
The paper analyzes the main paradigms, theories, concepts and models that form the content of two fundamental approaches describing, explaining and forecasting territorial dynamics: global, inter-country, national and local, economic inequality.
The “flat world” approach (based on the classical political and economic theories of A. Smith, D. Ricardo, the theory of K. Marx, the concept of agricultural areas development by A.N. Chelintsev, the neoclassical models of international exchange, models of innovations diffusion by T. Hegerstrand and H. Hirsch) made it possible to reduce the provision to the movement from economically non-uniform to economically homogeneous world.
The second approach (the so-called “volumetric world”) is combining A. Serra’s mercantilist concept, I. Tyunen’s agricultural stand theory, A. Weber’s industrial stand theory, G. Myrdal’s scientific views and finally, P. Krugman’s formal mathematical model so that to reduce the idea of inequality to the level of aggravation or reduction of territorial and economic inequality between states and/or their individual regions.
Our analysis within the framework of these two approaches provides a new vision on economic history and the history of economic thought development. However, the current growth of territorial economic inequality indicates a greater relevance of the theories, forming the approach of the so-called “three-dimensional world”.