ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how specific combinations of regional attributes offer location advantages for specific categories of economic activities and land use in general. According to the central place model (CPS) a region's most important attribute is its accessibility to demand, and this gives a specialization pattern which tends to reflect the size and density of a region (Beckmann 1958). With reference to the comparative advantage theory (Ohlin 1933), variations in supply attributes of regions give them individual opportunities to specialize in accordance with pertinent advantages. In an LA model (location advantage=LA) every region finds its own specialization, given the located (trapped) resources which constitute the invariant (slowly changing) economic milieu of each particular region. In Beckmann and Puu (1985) milieu differentials are represented by spatial variations in interaction opportunities.
