A Note on the Geographic Interdependencies of Retail Market Areas

Central place theory describes an orderly hierarchy of places, with particular retail services developing for lower-ordered places as they reach a threshold. Yet it is likely that nearby areas could serve simultaneously as a source of demand and a source of competing supply for retail stores in a place. This paper contributes to the understanding of local economic development by modeling and estimating the geographic interdependence between a place and its neighboring areas. The simultaneous equation Tobit results suggest that such geographical interdependence exists for most retail industries, with spatial competition on the supply side being particularly important.     

零售商业空间组织的市场分析

本文从市场地理学的角度上,对零售空间组织的决策过程--市场分析过程进行了研究。指出该过程应包括区域社会经济分析,即提供发展背景;贸易区分析,即确定区位发展可行性;消费者研究,即确定组织经营形式。     

Advances in the Theory of Market Areas

The purpose of the paper is to state general properties of theoretical market areas of cities. We consider two centers on the Euclidean plane, several models describing the spatial influence of a center, and a general, continuous, and strictly increasing transportation cost function. Derived properties of market areas concern area measure, topological bounds, emptiness, boundedness, connectedness, convexity, and the membership of a city to its own market area. In particular, it is shown how the shape of market areas changes with the transportation cost function. Finally, prospects for further research are presented.     

Mapping Market Areas Using Nonparametric Smoothing

A new method is proposed to map firms' principal market areas using shipment data. The new method is a general one which could prove just as useful in mapping the incidence of disease as in mapping market areas. This method is applied to agricultural data for feeder cattle sales at a video cattle auction. Transportation costs appear to be the main determinant of market area boundaries, but there are many cases where transportation costs alone cannot explain the market areas found. The size and shape of market areas for feeder cattle buyers are large, irregularly shaped, and extensively overlapping.     

Measuring Religious Preferences in Nineteenth-Century Urban Areas

The author applies David Galenson's work on the life cycles of modern artists to the study of the paintings of old masters, from about the early fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. Both the potential use of technical examination of paintings and the role of drawings for preconceiving compositions are explored as means for interpreting artistic behavior among pre-modern artists. Using a study of illustrations in texts to establish a list of canonical painters and the relative dates in which they are believed to have contributed their most important paintings, the author then analyzes a series of old master painters' working methods, demonstrating how their creative behavior corresponds to what their respective life cycles would suggest. Thus, the study of artists' life cycles could anticipate the use of optical and other mechanical devices for the production of premodern paintings based on such studies.     

Association between Population Density and The Market Areas of Towns

This paper examines the relationship between population density and town spacing in four kinds of environment. These are: (1) linear curves of demand, transport and production costs and an even population distribution; (2) nonlinear transport cost curves over space; (3) variable population density within hinterlands; and (4) variation of transport costs with population density. Previously, it has been shown that the criterion of free entry does not uniquely determine town spacing. The implications of four stronger criteria are therefore examined in this paper. These location criteria are: (a) the number of towns is maximized; (b) the number of towns in minimized, subject to all consumers' being served; (c) the towns are all owned by one profit-maximizing monopolist; and (d) the average of some consumer utility function is maximized. In cases (a), (c), and (d) spacing decreases with density; in (b) spacing is an increasing function of density. Actual data are presented on the spacing of towns in Iowa and shopping centers in Chicago which indicate that spacing and population density are not associated. These results are consistent with the notion that entry is free but are not consistent with the stronger constraints employed in this paper.     

The Transformation of Retail Markets in Lisbon: An Analysis through the Lens of Retail Gentrification

The relationship between cities and retail is strong and historical. This article focuses on the analysis of traditional retail markets, a retail concept that has lost its relevance in previous decades. However, more recently there has been a reversal of this trend following increased interest in the rehabilitation of these markets. This reinvestment follows the divestment stage and is characterised by the active role that private interests play in the management and operation of these retail precincts. This evolutionary process challenges the capacity of traditional retailers to continue their operations in these markets and the ability of disadvantaged customers to continue shopping there. Furthermore, this development may be indicative of retail gentrification. In this article, the ongoing process of market rehabilitation in Lisbon is analysed to determine whether evidence of retail gentrification has occurred. The use of case studies forms a significant part of the methodology. In addition, eleven retailers were interviewed in three traditional retail markets in Lisbon. The article concludes that direct displacement did not occur in the markets studies. However, because of the divestment in these retail precincts, indirect displacement did affect several retailers.     

The Lösch System of Market Areas: Derivation and Extension

Certain aspects of Lösch's classic work on the network of markets and the system of networks have not yet been clearly explained in the literature. Lösch did not describe his derivation procedures in full, and apparent printing errors in certain förmulae confuse the issue further, with the result that several recent texts reproduce Lösch's diagrams but offer no explanation of how they are constructed. Accepting the network of hexagonal market areas for a continuous system of markets, given an even but discrete distribution of population, the derivation from first principles of the complete system of different market areas is presented. Apparent errors in the translated text of Lösch's work are corrected. Limitations in some other authors' work and accordance with earlier empirically derived formulae are mentioned. The production of “city-rich” and “city-poor” sectors is shown to be a constraint on, rather than a result of, the system, and Lösch's statement that the coincidence of centers is maximized is clarified. The extension of the Lösch system to the internal tertiary structure of the city is presented and attention drawn to the empirical attractiveness of this approach.     

Distortions in the height structure of the equatorial electrojet during counter electrojet events

This paper presents simultaneous observations made near the magnetic equator during counter electrojet events using a coherent VHF backscattcr radar, magnetometer and digital ionosonde to understand the physical processes that generate the counter electrojet conditions. The VHF backscatter radar gives the height structure of the drift velocity or the ionization irregularities, the equatorial electrojet current variations are obtained from the magnetometer and the digital ionosonde provides the presence of blanketing E-layers at the F-region heights which give rise to the backscatter signals. These observations have provided direct experimental evidence for the theoretically predicted distortions in the height structure of the polarization electric field in the equatorial electrojet due to the local effects of shearing zonal neutral winds.     

Determining Market Areas Captured by Competitive Facilities: A Continuous Equilibrium Modeling Approach

Many existing models concerning locations and market areas of competitive facilities assume that customers patronize a facility based on distance to that facility, or perhaps on a function of distances between the customer and the different facilities available. Customers are generally assumed to be located at certain discrete demand points in a two-dimensional space, or continuously distributed over a one-dimensional line segment. In this paper these assumptions are relaxed by employment of a continuum optimization model to characterize the equilibrium choice behavior of customers for a given set of competitive facilities over a heterogeneous two-dimensional space. Customers are assumed to be scattered continuously over the space and each customer is assumed to choose a facility based on both congested travel time to the facility and on the attributes of the facility. The model is formulated as a calculus of variations problem and its optimality conditions are shown to be equivalent to the spatial customer-choice equilibrium conditions. An efficient numerical method using finite element technique is proposed and illustrated with a numerical example.     

铁路与华北内陆地区市镇形态的演变(1905—1937)

已有的研究成果表明,交通运输的变革,对市镇形态的演变影响深远。铁路作为近代交通的代表,显然具有这一功能。本文将以1905—1937年间华北地区较为著名的驻马店、漯河、唐山、焦作、石家庄、平地泉等市镇为例,通过考察铁路与产业结构、社会结构、地域结构及外部形态演变间的关联作用,揭示铁路与形态演变之间的规律,并将铁路影响下的华北内陆工商业市镇形态概括为驻马店模式、唐山模式和石家庄模式。     

圆明园买卖街钩沉

本文对清代圆明园中特殊的景致——买卖街的布局、建筑形式以及经营特点进行了梳理考证,并对其历史渊源和文化内涵作出进一步的分析。     

An Assessment of the Networks for Measuring and Modelling Solar Radiation in British Columbia and Adjacent Areas of Western Canada

The coverage provided by the existing solar radiation monitoring network for British Columbia and adjacent areas in western Canada is assessed and found to be inadequate. It is generally advantageous to use a numerical solar radiation model at available sites to augment the observed values, although this is not a complete solution to the problem. It is also shown that the ability to extrapolate solar radiation data from measurement and modelling locations is strongly determined by the general nature of the synoptic weather conditions. In addition, the use of solar radiation extrapolations is restricted by problems involving homogeneity and isotropy assumptions.
Les auteurs presentent une evaluation de la distribution des stations en Colombie britannique et les aires adjacents du Canada de I'ouest mesurant la radiation solaire; ils en concluent que le reseau actuel est inadequat. 11s soulignent I'avantage d'emprunter un modele numerique pour caracteriser la radiation solaire aux sites disponibles, afin d'aug-menter les donnees observees. Neanmoins, cela ne represente pas pour les auteurs une solution complete du probleme. 11s demontrent que le caractere general des conditions meteorologiques synoptiques determine fortement la possibilite d'une extrapolation de la distribution de la radiation solaire, derivee des donnees mesurees et des modeles adoptes aux sites specifiques. Finalement, ils etablissent que certains problemes concernant les hypo-theses d'homogeneite et d'isotropie imposent leur tour des limites a I'utilite de la methoded'extrapolation pour decrire la radiation solaire.     

Reality versus Policy: The Delineation and Testing of Local Labour Market and Spatial Policy Areas

As part of the empirical planning science, this article integrates theory, empirical findings and policy. It first deals with the question how to reach a theoretically well-grounded and empirical applicable delineation of local labour market areas. An inductive classification method is selected based on the behaviour of individual commuters without selecting a priori central places. By this, new urban forms like polynodality are included. In using this method for the Netherlands, 31 local labour market areas (LLAs) were distinguished. Moreover, the article elaborates some simple measures to test the optimality of LLA classifications. The 31 LLAs adequately reflect the 'reality' of actual functional labour market relationships. The article also investigates the matching between reality and the LLA classification as used in spatial policy. There is a large gap between reality and policy. This urges bringing the policy classification more in line with existing LLAs. Alternatively, if one considers the present policy classification as an instrument for future spatial structure, much additional effort will be required. The findings of the article can be easily applied to other European countries.     

Gender,Retail Employment and the Clothing Commodity Chain

This article analyzes the conditions of employment in fashion retailing, arguing that fashion retailing constitutes a distinct sector of retailing. The fashion commodity chain is characterized by a unique spatiality and temporality and as a result, female retail workers share much in common with women situated at production, advertising and consumption sites in the chain. Given that many of the issues women confront at different sites are similar, the sector is amenable to organizing across the chain.     

A Spatial Search-Location Model of Retail Centers

Central place theory can be modeled using two types of optimization problems. Location-allocation models have been widely applied to operationalize central place theory as an aggregate optimization problem. This paper constructs a spatial search-location model to formulate central place theory as an individual optimization problem.