The Dictionary of Human Geography

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considered evaluation (Breheny, 1995), to

strong scepticism (Neuman, 2005). em

Suggested reading

Breheny (1997).

comparative advantage The principle

whereby individuals (or territories) produce

those goods or services for which they have

the greatest cost or efficiency advantage over

others, or for which they have the least disad-

vantage. The outcome tends to be specializa-

tion across places. A gifted individual or

resource-rich region may be able to produce

everything more efficiently than others that are

less well endowed, but as long as some com-

parative advantage exists, specialization may

benefit all. An example is that of the best

lawyer in town who is also the best typist: it

pays the lawyer to concentrate on the lucrative

practice of the law and hire a typist (who has a

comparative advantage in typing relative to

knowledge of the law). One region may be able

to produce two goods more efficiently than

another region, but it pays to concentrate on

the good for which there is greatest compara-

tive advantage and buy the other from the

second region.

The notion of comparative advantage is

important in understanding regional special-

ization, whereby allregionsgain from the

interchange of products even if they could sat-

isfy their own needs (cf.complementarity). A

condition for realizing the benefits of compara-

tive advantage is freetrade. At the inter-

national scale,marketimperfections such as

tariffbarriers can impede specialization based

on comparative advantage, protecting domes-

tic production of goods that could not with-

stand open competition. The objective may

be to ensure more ‘balanced’ economic devel-

opment and to avoid problems associated with

narrow product specialization. dms

competitive advantage The relative abil-

ity of firms in the samemarketto win above-

average profit levels, through either cost or

product differentiation advantages. These

may result from either a superiorresource

base (e.g. better facilities, superior quality of

workforce), greater capability to utilize its

available resources (capability advantages)

and/or a better-quality product. That competi-

tive advantage may be only transient; it is sus-

tainable if it cannot be challenged by other

firms.

Competitive advantage is also used to

account for the emergingdivision of labour,

rather than the theory ofcomparative advan-

tage. Places may compete for employment –

as, for example, in many service industries,

including leisure and tourism – on the basis

that what they have to offer is superior to that

available in other places, so that spatial differ-

entiation results from competitive success

rather than differential resource availability or

efficiency. rj

Suggested reading

Ancien (2005); Porter (1998).

complementarity The existence of comple-

mentarity between tworegionsimplies that

one produces (or has the potential to produce)

goods or services for which the other suffers

from a deficit (or potential deficit). Ullman

(1956) used the term to describe one of the

bases ofspatial interaction, arguing that

complementarity may arise either fromareal

differentiation(in resource endowment, or

in social, economic and cultural conditions)

or as a result ofeconomies of scale(cf.com-

parative advantage). rj

complexity theory A term for the study of

‘complex systems’ that is used in both math-

ematical systems modelling and in qualitative

and discursive work. Complex systems are

non-linear, interdependent and strongly

coupled systems with feedbackloops, and

may exhibit scale-effects, together with sensitiv-

ity to initial conditions and path-dependence.

The original use of the term is for the math-

ematical properties and analysis of such non-

linear interdependent systems, and embraces

bothchaos theoryandcatastrophe theory

as sub-branches. Many studies identify three

divisions of mathematical complexity theory:

algorithmic or computational complexity;

deterministic complexity; and ‘aggregate

complexity’.

Algorithmic complexitydeals with the relative

computational difficulty of computable func-

tions. This may appear the least relevant div-

ision forhuman geography, but is important

in understanding the difficulties of solving

large-scale spatialoptimizationproblems and

other aspects of geographic information

systemsandspatial analysis.Deterministic

complexityexamines the properties of non-lin-

ear systems and subsumes both chaos theory

and catastrophe theory as particular subsets.

The third division ofaggregate complexitycon-

siders systems of linked components or sub-

systems and examines the ways in which order

and structure may emerge at higher levels

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_C Final Proof page 105 31.3.2009 9:45pm

COMPLEXITY THEORY