Localisation rurale des activités industrielles. Que nous enseigne l’économie géographique ?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how new location theories can explain the location of industrial activities in rural areas. A survey of recent economic geography models is presented. We aim at highlighting the trade-off firms do when choosing to locate in an urban area or in a low-densely populated area. It is worth taking into account two types of rural areas : rural areas under urban influence and independent rural areas. In the first case, the location of non agricultural activities is mainly explained by the working of the land market. In the second case, labor market has to be taken into account in order to be account for rural industrialization.