La '''géographie économique''' est la branche de la géographie humaine qui étudie la répartition spatiale et la localisation des activités économiques.
La modélisation économique liée à la géographie économique est l''''''économie géographique''''', ou '''''économie des territoires'''''.

== Rôle des ressources naturelles ==

La première clé de la géographie économique est la question des ressources naturelles :
* l'accès à l'eau est primordial pour l'agriculture comme pour la production d'énergie et pour l'industrie
* l'agriculture a besoin de terres arables et de pâtures
* l'industrie nécessite matières premières (minerais métalliques, pierre, silice, pétrole, bois, etc.) et énergie fossile
* le tourisme se développe principalement là où il y a un attrait touristique, qu'il soit naturel (plage, montagne, climat, site remarquable, source thermale) ou humain (patrimoine, lieu de mémoire, lieu de pèlerinage)

== Rôle de la population ==

La deuxième clé de la géographie économique est celle de la localisation par rapport à la population :
* l'activité économique a besoin de main-d'œuvre, et par exemple une main-d’œuvre qualifiée se trouve dans les métropoles, les villes universitaires, les technopôles, une main-d'œuvre ouvrière dans des régions industrielles, une main-d'œuvre à bon marché dans des pays pauvres, une main-d'œuvre docile dans des États dictatoriaux
* l'activité économique a besoin de régions urbanisées, et au pouvoir d'achat plus élevé dans les pays développés
* l'activité économique provoque des nuisances (risque d'accidents, pollution, bruit), et les décideurs, économique comme politiques, peuvent être poussés à éloigner ces activités de l'habitat, sous la pression des citoyens
* Avec le développement de l'économie du savoir, les activités à forte technologie tendent à se développer près des sources de recherche et d'éducation (universités réputées), cf. le cas de la Silicon Valley.

== Rôle des communications ==

La troisième clé de la géographie économique est l'accès aux voies de communication et aux transports, terrestres, maritimes ou aériens.

== Les critères d'implantation selon le type d'économie ==

Dans le système d'économie de marché qui domine le monde actuel, et qui est basé sur la rentabilité, les décideurs économiques pèsent tous ces facteurs pour décider de l'implantation de leurs lieux de production et de commercialisation. Et les contraintes géographiques ne sont pas les seules à être prises en compte :
* les décisions de délocalisation s'expliquent par la recherche d'un moindre coût de production, mais c'est la baisse du coût du transport maritime et des droits de douane qui rendent possible la mondialisation de l'économie
* à l'opposé, une entreprise peut choisir de ne pas délocaliser pour garder sa clientèle, en conservant une image d'activité nationale

'''Economic geography''' is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the location theorists, following in the tradition of Alfred Weber, tend to focus on industrial location and use quantitative methods.  Since the 1970s, two broad reactions against neoclassical approaches have significantly changed the discipline: Marxist political economy, growing out of the seminal work of David Harvey; and the new economic geography which takes into account social, cultural, and institutional factors in the spatial economy.

Economic geography is usually regarded as a subfield of the discipline of geography, although recently economists such as Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs have pursued interests that can be considered part of economic geography.<ref></ref> Krugman has gone so far as to call his application of spatial thinking to international trade theory the "new economic geography", which directly competes with an approach within the discipline of geography that is also called "new economic geography".  The name geographical economics has been suggested as an alternative.<ref></ref>

Given the variety of approaches, economic geography has taken to many different subject matters, including: the location of industries, economies of agglomeration (also known as "linkages"), transportation, international trade and development, real estate, gentrification, ethnic economies, gendered economies, core-periphery theory, the economics of urban form, the relationship between the environment and the economy (tying into a long history of geographers studying culture-environment interaction), and globalization.  This list is by no means exhaustive.  

==Areas of Study==
Economic geography research focuses on the study of spatial aspects of economic activities on various scales. The distance to the city (or oil.

One of the main topics in contemporary economic geography is globalization which greatly influences location, distribution and character of economic activities around the world. States and their borders play less significant role as many countries tend to eliminate the effects of borders and deepen the mutual cooperation on the global scale. Border regions that are often economically marginal and underdeveloped are also better cooperating with each other. The best example is the creation of European Union. Significant characteristics is also the occurrence of large business clusters that are forming around the world.

===Approaches to study===
*''Theoretical economic geography'' focuses on building theories about spatial arrangement and distribution of economic activities.
*''Historical economic geography'' examines history and the development of spatial economic structure.
*''Regional economic geography'' examines the economic conditions of particular regions or countries of the world. It deals with economic regionalisation as well.
*''Critical economic geography'' is approach from the point of view of contemporary critical geography and its philosophy.
*''Behavioral economic geography'' examines the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, locational decision making, and behavior of firms<ref>Schoenberger, E. (2001): ''Corporate autobiographies: the narrative strategies of
corporate strategists''. Journal of Economic Geography 1, 277-98.</ref> and individuals.

==Subdivision==
Thematically economic geography can be divided into these subdisciplines:
*'Geography of agriculture'
*'Geography of industry'
*'Internet Geography'
*'Geography of services'
*'Geography of transportation'
* and others

However, their areas of study may overlap with another geographical sciences or may be considered on their own.

==History of economic geography==
In the history of economic geography there were many influences coming mainly from geographical sciences.

First traces of the study of spatial aspects of economic activities on Earth can be found in seven Chinese maps of the State of Qin dating to the 4th century BC.

During the period known in geography as environmental determinism notable (though later much criticized) influence came from Ellsworth Huntington and his theory of climatic determinism.