Economic Geography

15 Approaching research methods
in economic geography
William B. Beyers
Economic geography encompasses a rich variety of research topics focused on
regions, systems of regions, consumers, individual businesses, aggregations of
businesses, and their trade relations. It has been my great fortune to be engaged
in the practice of economic geography for over 40 years. In that time I have under-
taken a wide variety of research projects of a largely applied nature that have been
published in academic journals and books, and in a consulting environment.
1
In
this brief chapter I would like to address some lessons I’ve learned in the process
of undertaking this research, using my own work as a basis for these lessons.
The diversity of topics that I have addressed over the span of my career has
continued to invigorate me as I’ve continued my work. When I first started out
as an economic geographer, ‘economic’ was pretty much equated with manufac-
turing on the part of industrial geographers, and there was confusion about the
difference between urban, economic, and industrial geography. Some were
coming at their research in a very empirical manner, and others from style framed
by the ‘quantitative revolution’ – which was very much associated with the
University of Washington before I became a graduate student there. I came to
my position with no worry about whether what I was doing was too descriptive,
not rooted enough in theory, or too applied. Washington, in the wake of the
quantitative revolution, was a department that was immensely practical; we
adopted theory and methods needed to attack the problem at hand. I believe
that one of the contributions that I have made over my career has been to be a
contributor to multiple arenas of debate; those in the rarified academic world of
journals, as a faculty member helping to educate and train undergraduate
2 
and
graduate students in the field of economic geography, and as someone actively
involved in the formulation of public policy. I will argue that my impact – as a
person – has been stronger due to this multiplicity of professional engagements.
Each scholar has their own unique perspective on the scope of their inquiry,
their methodology and theory, and the type of data that they wish to bring 
to bear on their project. I will be perfectly up front in saying that I was trained
in a Regional Science mode of inquiry that values quantitative analysis, formal
models, and the use of theory to frame research methods. Most of my work has
been quantitative and inductive in nature, using primary and secondary data
sources. However, my work has also depended upon qualitative sources, and in

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Approaching research methods in economic geography
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many cases has been rooted in a concern with history or change. I have organ-
ized this essay around eight points that I am illustrating with my own research;
space limitations do not allow me to present the findings from the research I am
citing in the form of tables. Instead, it is my intention to critically comment on
this work in the context of these eight points. Here goes!