Spatial changes in the world economy: core areas and periphery

The position of countries in the world economy is uneven, therefore core and peripheral areas can be distinguished. However, the identification of factors, which affect economic development and thus the position of a country in the hierarchical system, is more important than the classification itself. Owing to clarity, the factors are divided into three parts: space and resources, population and production. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the most important trends (geographical, demographical and in production) in the world economy in terms of their spatial progress as well as to examine their relationship to the key indicator of the economic level, which is represented by gross domestic product per capita. At first, theoretical approaches concerning the issue are described. On their basis, a pair of indicators representing individual factor is always chosen. Subsequently, these indicators are analyzed at the country level from 1976 to 2010. Their spatial changes are well illustrated by cartograms. The last part proves by the means of mathematical statistics that the effect of geographical factors on the economic level has diminished during the examined period, whereas the effect of demographical and production factors has not changed significantly.