Geography and wealth are a frequent subject of study in geography, both between nations and across regions within nations. Some scholars, such as Jeffrey D. Sachs, argue that geography has a key role in the development of a nation's economic growth. For instance, nations that reside along coastal regions, or those who have access to a nearby water source, are more plentiful and able to trade with neighboring nations. In addition, countries with tropical climates face significant challenges, such as disease, extreme weather patterns, and lower agricultural productivity. This thesis is supported by the fact that the volumes of UV radiation harm economic activity. Several studies confirm that spatial development in countries with higher levels of economic development differs from countries with lower levels of development. The correlation between geography and a nation's wealth can be observed by examining a country's GDP (gross national product) per capita, which takes into account a nation's economic output and population. The wealthiest nations of the world with the highest standard of living tend to be those at the northern extreme of areas open to human habitation—including Northern Europe, the United States, and Canada. Within prosperous nations, wealth often increases with distance from the equator. Researchers at Harvard's Center for International Development found in 2001 that only two tropical economies — Singapore and Hong Kong — are classified as high- income by the World Bank, while all countries within regions zoned as temperate had either middle- or high-income economies.
Measurement Most of the recent studies use national gross domestic product per person, as measured by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as the unit of comparison. Intra-national comparisons use their own data, and political divisions, such as states or provinces, delineate the study areas.
Distance from the Equator In prosperous nations, a greater distance from the equator correlates with higher wealth. For example, the Northeast United States has long been wealthier than its southern counterpart, and northern Italy wealthier than southern regions of the country. Even within Africa, this effect is evident, as the nations farthest from the equator are wealthier. In Africa, the wealthiest nations are the three on the southern tip of the continent, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, and the countries of North Africa. Similarly, in South America, Argentina, Southern Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay have long been the wealthiest. Within Asia, Indonesia, located on the equator, is among the poorest. Within Central Asia, Kazakhstan is wealthier than other former Soviet Republics which border it to the south, like Uzbekistan. Very often such differences in economic development are linked to the North-South issue. This approach assumes an empirical division of the world into rich northern countries and poor southern countries. In addition, the problem of heterogeneous economic development (between the industrialised north and the agrarian south) also exists within the following countries:
South and North Kazakhstan. Southern (Osh, Batken) and northern (Bishkek city and Chui) oblasts in Kyrgyzstan. Southern Italy and Padania. Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium. Catalonia, Basque Country and the rest of Spain. New England and the south-eastern states of the USA. Poland A and B. North (Mediterranean Coast) and South (Vast Saharan Region) in Algeria.
Explanations
Historic interpretations One of the first to describe and assess the phenomenon was the French philosopher Montesquieu, who asserted in the 18th century that "cold air constringes (sic) the extremities of the external fibres of the body; this increases their elasticity, and favours the return of the blood from the extreme parts to the heart. It contracts those very fibres; consequently, it also increases their force. On the contrary, warm air relaxes and lengthens the extremes of the fibres; of course, it diminishes their force and elasticity. People are therefore more vigorous in cold climates." The 19th-century historian Henry Thomas Buckle wrote that "climate, soil, food, and the aspects of nature are the primary causes of intellectual progress—the first three indirectly, through determining the accumulation and distribution of wealth, and the last by directly influencing the accumulation and distribution of thought, the imagination being stimulated and the understanding subdued when the phenomena of the external world are sublime and terrible, the understanding being emboldened and the imagination curbed when they are small and feeble." The first industrial revolution marked the beginning of divergence among nations. Alex Trew introduces a spatial take-off model that uses data on occupations in 18th-century England. The model predicts changes in the spatial distribution of agricultural and manufacturing employment, which are consistent with the 1817 and 1861 data. Thus, one of the historical factors influencing the geographical unevenness of wealth distribution is the degree of industrial development, catalysed by the Industrial Revolution.
Climatic differences Physiologist Jared Diamond was inspired to write his Pulitzer Prize-winning work Guns, Germs, and Steel by a question posed by Yali, a New Guinean politician: why were Europeans so much wealthier than his people? In this book, Diamond argues that the Europe-Asia (Eurasia) land mass is particularly favorable for the transition of societies from hunter-gatherer to farming communities. This continent stretches much farther along the same lines of latitude than any other continent. Since it is much easier to transfer a domesticated species along the same latitude than it is to move it to a warmer or colder climate, any species developed at a particular latitude will be transferred across the continent in a relatively short amount of time. Thus, the inhabitants of the Eurasian continent have had a built-in advantage in terms of earlier development of farming, and a greater range of plants and animals from which to choose. Oded Galor, and Ömer Özak examine existing differences in time preference across countries and regions, using pre-industrial agro-climatic characteristics. The authors conclude that agro-climatic characteristics have a significant impact through culture on economic behaviour, the degree of technology adoption and human capital.
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