Model-building of the Relationships between Inter-regional Economic Disparity and Internal Migration : The Case of Korea

Abstract

I. General Review on the Theories of Relationships Between Economic Disparity and Internal Migration The Benefits of Aggregation The spatial development of the counrty, but is also affected by these economic and social changes. The most important clements of the economic and social changes which interact with inter-regional unbalallccd clevelopment are the movements of materials and population. In general, the movements of materials and population take place from relatively low areas to relatively high areas in terms of product per unit of time. Therefore, materials and population are readily concl'1ltrated in a limited number of spatial points. That is, the regions in which materials and population are more concentrated may produce greater benefits than the regions being less concentrated with such materials and population. This is the benefits of aggregation based on the principle of economies of scale. The concentrated regions with materials and labor forces not only produce high benefits, but also have an acceleration effect or a chain reaction by which the regions pull more materials and population. The formation and growth of cities are attributed to the principle of aggregation, and the growth pole theory is also based on the principle of aggregation benefits. When the aggregation of labor force, capital and information areformed in various ways on the base of mutually functional dependency through divisions of labor, space and time, we can expect a high degree of developmental potential in human society.