Spiridon Alexandra Group II

International Trade
Literature Review
One of an important step that helped to the development of strong interconnections between regions is the transportation innovations as Knowles stated in 2006 and due to these the specialization of production increase dramatically and the division of labour occurred, creating opportunities for trade. Low cost carriers has effectively redrawn the map of accessibility and travel costs across Europe(Hudson,2004) but we have to take into consideration an important factor : the people wages which is highly uneven between countries and this influences the level of accessibility in a negative way and decrease the connectivity (Graham,1998;Bowen,2002;Dobruskez,2005).Information from Low-Cost Carriers, Economies of Flows and Regional Externalities article published in Regional Studies, Vol. 43.5,pp. 677-691, June 2009. Recent studies observe that U.S. state borders do have institutional effects, notably in the economic sphere, where manufacturing and retail location, taxation policy, interstate trade, and international trade are shaped in part by the presence of the border institution (Fox,1986; Helliwell & Verdier, 2001;Hillberry & Hummels, 2003; Holmes,1998; Mikesell, 1970; Nelson,2002; Wolf, 2000) actually federal and state funds are redistributed differentially within a state for political effect and this could disrupt the effects of geographic proximity in political behavior ( Alvarez& Savings,1997; Ansolabethere & Snyder, 2006; Dahlberg & Johansson, 2002; Fleck , 1999;Fry & Winters, 1970). Geographical proximity is important establishing a successful collaboration and knowledge exchange. Information from Geographic Proximity Versus Institutions from American Politics Research. Collaboration between governmental, academic and private organizations in scientific knowledge production is an important and growing phenomenon and the geographical proximity released to be more relevant for successful collaboration between academic and non-academic organizations than for purely academic collaboration (Boschma 2005; Torre and Rallet 2005). The development prospects for the German-Polish border region in a new Europe will be determined by the emerging new system of production and regulation (especially the institutional resources of the regional economy) and the region is being increasingly exposed to supraregional strategies of external firms.(Regional Integration or Fragmentation? The GermanPolish Border Region in a New Europe- Regional Studies) According to the results from Delphi survey in the Greater Region, the most important barriers for cross-border cooperation are: multilevel-mismatch, no common strategy, high number of actors involved, not on political agenda, different administrative cultures, differences in language and culture, lacking resources, lacking political will and large territory. A three-step procedure for C-B-IM is presented in the article: On the territoriality of CrossBorder Cooperation: Institutional Mapping in Multi-level Context with the scope to visualize the institutional structures and the related actor constellations. The first step is called: Multilevel mapping of the cross-institution(s) and it reveals the formal institutional framework and provides
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Spiridon Alexandra Group II

a first understanding of the institutional and territorial complexity of cross-border cooperation. In the case of Greater Region are involved entities from France & Luxembourg and Belgium & Germany and they meet in the framework of the Summit of the Executives which embodies the main institution of cooperation. The second step is named: Multi-level policy mapping and it aims to show the relevant domestic actors, regardless of whether they are formally involved or not in the cross-border cooperation. And the third step: Political topography mapping shows a more thorough analysis of the actual governance mechanisms in a concrete context and their territorial implications. According to the article:Institutional mapping of Oregon coastal watershed management options-Ocean& Coastel Management 45(2002) 357-375, institutional mapping builds on the concept of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and it used three institutional properties to make the analysis: scale (representing the spatial properties of institutions; power ( representing the social properties of institutions); capital ( representing the cultural properties of institutions). The institutional mapping process illustrated for salmon restoration has three steps- identify scale, assess power and evaluate capital for the institutions that influence watershed health. The first step identifies the major institutions for salmon restoration and their scale. Next is an assessment of the power of these salmon institutions, and finally, their associated capital is evaluated. Regarding to the next article Construction of New Territorial Scales: A Framework and Case Study of the EUREGIO Cross-border Region Regional Studies, Vol41.2, pp.253266,April 2007 it refers to scales and the politics of scale which reflects the assumption that geographic scales are socially constituted in historically specific ways and can, hence, become a stake in political struggles (Smith, 1992). The re-scaling debate has highlighted the role of scale which sometimes refers to the bounded spaces and sometime refers to the extension of processes, such as commodity chains, firm collaboration or capitalist accumulation in general. The case study about EUREGIO emphasizes the following: political mobilization which means that the local authorities establish collective action in order to create a platform to attract attention and resources to the area; governance building is focused on the intersection of a local policy network involving local authorities and a vertical policy network involving higher-level authorities; strategic unification was inspired by a shared vision around building a functional unit serving as object of intervention for unified cross-border policy measures in all spheres of life. In the last article: Does tourism promote cross-border trade? Oxford Journal shows the results from a survey meant to demonstrate the hypothesis that both formal and casual exposure of cross-border business opportunities impact trade positively. Also the results indicate that communities seeking to develop or expand cross-border trading activities should first target entrepreneurs with an exploratory and venturesome spirit.