Michael Storper

Michael joined the Department in October 2000 as LSE Centennial Professor of Economic Geography. He is also affiliated with the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations at Sciences-Po in Paris, and the Department of Urban Planning in the School of Public Affairs at UCLA.

Professor Storper is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and has received the Regional Studies Association's Sir Peter Hall Prize for overall contribution to the field.

He is an internationally recognised scholar and author, particularly well known for his books which include The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Technology and Industrial Growth (with R. Walker; Blackwell, 1989), Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development (with A. Scott; Routledge, 1992), Worlds of Production: The Action Frameworks of the Economy (with Robert Salais, Harvard Univ. Press, 1997), The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy (Guildford Press, 1997), and Latecomers in the Global Economy (editor with L. Tsipouri and S. Thmodakis; Routledge, 1998).

His latest books are The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies (Stanford University Press, 2015), and Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction,and Politics Shape Development (Princeton University Press, 2013).

• Globalisation and local and regional economic development processes

• The effects of liberalised trade and technology flows on global location patterns

• The role of local economic policies in influencing the effects of globalisation in local and regional economies

• The overall geography of the global economy: changes and continuities in location and specialisation patterns

• Face-to-face contact as a source of urbanisation economies

• The effects of new communications technologies on face-to-face contact and delocalisation

• Comparative regional development processes

For additional publications and downloadable articles, please see Professor Storper's personal page. 

Selected recent publications:

• Michael Storper, Thomas Kemeny, Naji Makerem, and Taner Osman (2015), The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles, Stanford University Press

• Storper, M. (2013), Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction, and Politics Shape Development, Princeton University Press

• 2011    'Justice, Efficiency and Economic Geography: Should Places Help One Another to Develop?' European Urban and Regional Studies

• 2010    'Why Does a City Grow? Specialisation, Human Capital or Institutions? Urban Studies, 1-24, May

• 2010   'Why do regions develop and change? the Challenge for Geography and Economics' Journal of Ecomonic Geography

• 2010    'Human Geography and the institutions that underlie economic growth' Thomas Farole, Andres Rodriguez-Pose and Michael Storper

• 2010    'From Retro to Avant-Garde: A commentary on Krugman "The new Economic Geography, now middle aged" 

• 2009    'Cohesion Policy in the European Union: Growth, Geography, Institutions' Thomas Farole, Andres Rodriguez-Pose and Michael Storper. Journal of Common Market Studies  

• 2008    'Regional Context and Global Trade:  Another Great Transformation?' (January 2009, Economic Geography) 

• 2008    'Community and Economics.'  IN:  A. Amin and J. Roberts, eds, Organising for Creativity: Community, Economy and Space. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 37-68 

• 2007    'On the Geographical Determinants of Innovation in Europe and the United States,' Riccardo Crescenzi, Andrés Rodriguez-Pose, and Michael Storper, Journal of Economic Geography 7,6: 673-709.

• 2006    'Behaviour, Preferences and Cities: Urban Theory and Urban Resurgence.' Urban Studies 43:8: 1-28, July,  (co- authored with  Michael Manville)

• 2005    'Society, Community and Economic Development,'  Studies in Comparative International Development, 39,4: 30-57.

• 2004    'Buzz: Face-to-Face Contact and the Urban Economy'  co-authored with Anthony J. Venables,  Journal of Economic Geography 4: 351-370.