THE WELFARE ASPECTS OF SPATIAL PRICING POLICIES RECONSIDERED FOR A MONOPOLY CASE*

ABSTRACT. We reexamine the price structures and their welfare implications in three pricing regimes (mill, uniform and discriminatory) for a monopoly. We show that spatial price discrimination could provide the highest social welfare and, when consumers tastes are heterogeneous enough, also the highest consumer surplus. The superiority of spatial price discrimination is partially due to the larger output produced and partially due to differential treatment for consumers with heterogeneous tastes.     

SPATIAL MONOPSONY AND MONOPOLY PRICING IN A STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENT*

ABSTRACT. In this paper some of the important properties of the behavior of a spatial monopsonist (monopolist) facing a stochastic supply (demand) curve are derived. Under uncertainty, price setting and quantity setting behavior are no longer equivalent. Hence, spatial price discrimination has to be compared with spatial quantity discrimination with respect to expected profits. I prove three general theorems on how the ranking of the behavioral modes, in terms of expected profit, depends on how the stochastic component enters the supply (demand) and supply (demand) price functions. In particular, I prove that under monopsony one would expect a high probability of excess demand, in the sense that the firm would accept all deliveries at the preset price.     

MILL PRICING AND SPATIAL PRICE DISCRIMINATION MONOPOLY PERFORMANCE AND LOCATION WITH SPATIAL RETAIL MARKETS*

ABSTRACT. Most of the monopoly spatial price discrimination literature explicitly assumes uniform population density over space. It also implicitly assumes that firms (plants) are spatially isolated from each other with production and retail points that coincide in location. While departures from these assumptions have been explored separately in the literature, it remains to examine performance and location when these assumptions are relaxed simultaneously. What emerges in this paper is a model where density functions approximate a pair of cities isolated from other cities. Each city has its own retail market, while the location of a single production or wholesale point is determined by characteristics of the two markets. Comparisons of mill pricing and spatial price discrimination found in the spatial monopoly literature can be interpreted as special cases of the more general framework provided here.     

SPATIAL PRICING IN INTERDEPENDENT MARHETS*

ABSTRACT. Conditions for spatial price equilibrium are derived for a set of firms in oligopolistic spatial competition, distributed at fixed locations in a heterogeneous region where consumer purchasing patterns are a probabilistic function of the price distribution rather than a deterministic function of proximity to firms. The resulting prices vary with accessibility to consumers or with the degree of local spatial monopoly, and result in non-zero profits for firms. Conditions describing the existence and stability properties of this spatial price equilibrium are defined, and are shown to be equivalent for two different hypotheses concerning disequilibrium pricing behavior: a partial price adjustment model and a Bertrand game. For two different profit goals, total profit maximization and profit rate maximization, it is shown that a spatial price equilibrium exists and is at least locally quasi-stable.     

THE JOINT CHOICE OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S OCCUPATION AND DESTINATION*

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between an individual's occupation choice and destination choice. It portrays the relationship as an interaction between the supply of occupational skills by individuals and demand by different labor‐market regions. The unusual merger of a multinomial logit model of occupational choice and the conditional logit model of destination choice in a simultaneous equation framework requires derivation of a unique variance–covariance matrix. Results indicate strong association between supply of (migration) and demand for (industry mix) an individual's occupational skills. These effects are especially strong for destinations experiencing slow economic growth, while relatively unimportant for high‐growth locations.     

珠江三角洲客、货运量的空间演化研究

本文分析了改革开放以来珠江三角洲地区客运量、货运量的总体变化特点。根据珠江三角洲各县市客运量与货运量在珠江三角洲地区各自所占的比重,选取了1980、1985、1990、1995、1998五个时间段,分析客运量与货运量在珠江三角洲地区的空间分布形态。     

SPATIAL COMPETITION AND THE JOINT CONSUMPTION OF SERVICES*

In Hotelling location models, an implicit assumption has been made that a customer uses the service provided by the firm, independent of other customers. However, for firms that supply meeting rooms, wedding halls, tennis courts, and golf links it is essential to incorporate the fact that the customer only uses the service in conjunction with other customers. The objective of this paper is to formulate the Hotelling location model n consideration of the interdependence among customers in one-dimensional space, and to characterize the state of equilibrium. In our model, each group of members within a given distance enjoys a fixed amount of service of the firms, under the assumption that the travel cost incurred by each group is defined as the travel cost of the farthest customer in the group.     

DISCRETE SPATIAL CHOICE MODELS FOR AGGREGATE DESTINATIONS*

ABSTRACT. In problems of spatial choice, the choice set is typically more aggregated than the one considered by decision-makers, often because choice data are available only at the aggregate level. These aggregate choice units will exhibit heterogeneity in utility and in size. To be consistent with utility maximization, a choice model must estimate choice probabilities on the basis of the maximum utility within heterogeneous aggregates. The ordinary multinomial logit model applied to aggregate choice units fails this criterion as it is estimated on the basis of average utility. In this paper, we derive and discuss a model which utilizes the theory underlying the nested logit model to estimate the appropriate maximum utilities of aggregates. We also demonstrate that the aggregate alternative error terms are asymptotically Gumbel, thereby relaxing the assumption of extreme value distributed error terms. This is accomplished with help from the asymptotic theory of extremes.     

甘肃经济空间结构的现状、问题与战略选择

区域经济空间结构和产业结构一样是不断发展变化的经济结构,具有向合理化和高级化变化的趋势。本文从区域经济空间结构要素的角度详细的考察了甘肃城市体系、交通体系和经济集中区的情况。其次,重点分析了甘肃经济空间结构的特征及其问题,得出了许多有意义的结论。最后,通过把区域经济空间结构理论与甘肃具体省情相结合,提出了甘肃"大十字"经济空间结构的发展战略,同时分析了实施这种发展战略的意义。     

THE FUTURE OF SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we give an overview of the general direction the spatial econometrics literature has taken without attempting to provide a representative survey of all interesting work that has appeared. Second, we identify a number of problems in spatial econometrics that are as yet unresolved. Finally, we provide advocacy for the notion that new spatial econometric theory should be inspired by actual empirical applications as opposed to being directed by what appears to be the most obvious extension of what is currently available.     

商品邮购(电话购物)的空间扩散与消费者抉择

信息通信技术在商品流通中的重要作用日渐明显,并且展现着进一步加强的趋势。电话(视)购物是当今已经"漫射"开来的普通电信在商业活动中应用的一个事实,可能对现存的地区性传统零售集团产生决定性影响-补充与替代共存。本文考查了国外邮(电)购的经验,并与我们在石家庄样区开展的调查工作进行了对比。最后我们对邮(电)购相关的区域规划问题进行了探讨,认为其与电话购物之电信服务方式的空间扩散相互影响。本文也旨在揭示这种零售方式是如何改善边远地区的购物条件的。     

GENTRIFICATION AND THE SPATIAL CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE: THE RESTRUCTURING OF LONDON'S DOCKLANDS*

This paper argues that despite recent advances in research concerned with gentrification, the role of the state in this process has not been adequately conceptualised. Existing perspectives largely fail to provide a thorough analysis of the way in which the duality of the states ‘political’ and ‘economic’ functions are related, and how these are represented in concrete spatial situations. Through an empirical focus upon London's Docklands, the way in which the state, through the London Docklands Development Corporation, is spatially constituted and has influenced the gentrification process are examined. First, some conceptual and theoretical questions are discussed. Second, a brief historical context in which gentrification in the Docklands can be situated is provided, followed by an examination of how the restructuring of this area relates to the broader restructuring of state relations. The central role of the state in the gentrification of the Docklands is then considered by looking first, at how the LDDC has aided, through capital subsidisation, the production of a gentrified built environment giving rise to restructured patterns of socio-spatial polarisation. Second, the question of how this action and the inequalities arising from it have been legitimised, through political, ideological and socio-cultural means, is examined. Finally, some of the theoretical and political implications of this analysis are addressed.