MONOPSONY AND PLANT LOCATION IN A THÜNEN LAND USE MODEL*

ABSTRACT. Previous work has developed a method for studying noninfinitesimal operational units, called “plantations,” with the Thüen model. In that model, increasing returns to scale generate large operational units, but the potential market power conferred by the scale economies is sidestepped as an issue. The present work introduces finite supply elasticities and examines their locational impacts. The profit-maximizing monopsonistic plantation is smaller, and the shipment distance for its processed output is shorter, than for a comparable competitive plantation. The present approach does not involve spatial competition strategies.     

聚集经济与最优城市规模探讨

经济活动的空间集中是一个引人注目的现象,聚集经济是空间集中的重要原因之一。虽然外部性对经济活动的集中有重要影响,但要解释聚集经济的来源还必须寻求更微观、更基本的经济主体行为上的原因。每个城市都存在着一个最优的规模,这个最有效率的规模是由经济活动空间集中所带来的利益与所引起的成本之间的一个均衡所决定的。因此,在城市化过程中,必须注重城市功能与效率的充分发挥。本文结合规模收益递增和单中心圆形城市模型,分析了通勤成本、城市规模收益递增程度对最优城市规模的影响,讨讨了城市人均收入与城市规模之间的关系,推导了两种对立的力量所决定的最优城市规模。文中指出:在一定条件下,城市人均收入与城市规模之间存在倒U形关系;否则,在城市总生产函数中规模收益递增程度足够强的情况下,最优城市规模取决于通勤成本。     

RETURNS TO SCALE AND REGIONAL GROWTH: THE STATIC‐DYNAMIC VERDOORN LAW PARADOX REVISITED*

ABSTRACT It has long been an article of faith amongst regional economists that increasing returns to scale are necessary to explain the punctiform location of economic activity and population. However, there is no consensus in the empirical literature over whether returns to scale are constant or increasing. A notable example of this lack of agreement is provided by the static‐dynamic Verdoorn law paradox. While the dynamic Verdoorn law (specified using growth rates) yields estimates of substantial increasing returns to scale, the static Verdoorn law (specified using log‐levels) indicates only the presence of constant returns to scale. In this paper, we explain the static‐dynamic Verdoorn law paradox by showing that estimates of returns to scale obtained using the static law are subject to a spatial aggregation bias, which biases the estimates towards constant returns to scale. We illustrate our arguments by means of simulation exercises. The results obtained hold general lessons for applied economic analysis using spatial data.     

VARIABLE RETURNS TO SCALE AND REGIONAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY*

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the resource allocational implications of intra-industrial externalities, i.e., variable returns to scale (VRS), in a two-region general equilibrium model of production under uncertainty. It is shown that most standard results concerning changes in the goods price ratio with constant returns to scale (CRS) under uncertainty generalize to VRS. In contrast, standard results concerning changes in factor endowments extend from CRS to decreasing returns to scale, but not to all permissible levels of increasing returns to scale. Thus, such theorems as factor price equalization and Rybczynski do not generalize to all real-world levels of VRS.     

A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SECTORAL VARIATIONS IN RETURNS TO EXTERNAL SCALE

ABSTRACT.  This paper reports results of spatially explicit analyses of external scale effects across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing. Using data from New England counties, earnings are found to exhibit increasing returns to urbanization in every sector. Returns to sectoral localization are mixed, however, with increasing returns in one sector, constant returns in five sectors, and decreasing returns in two sectors. External scale effects are fairly confined in their spatial extent, with only retailing and services particularly marked by spillover effects from neighboring counties.     

The Geographic Effects of Trade Liberalization with Increasing Returns in Transportation

Abstract This paper develops a model of economic geography that examines how the distribution of economic activity may change as a country opens up to foreign trade. The distinctive features of the model are that transportation is costly between locations within a nation as well as between nations, and that these transportation costs are subject to increasing returns to scale. A result of the model is that trade liberalization may cause the population of a country to become more concentrated in a single megalopolis. The large megalopolis may reduce welfare due to congestion costs, which implies that liberalization may unexpectedly leave the country worse off.     

Theory of Comparative Advantage: Do Transportation Costs Matter?

In this paper we present a formal analysis that incorporates returns to transportation into a Ricardian framework to predict trade patterns. The important point gained from this analysis is that increasing returns to transportation, coupled with appropriate distances between trading partners, can be shown to reverse Ricardian predictions even when there are no international differences in tastes, technology, or factor endowments. Additional gains from trade may emerge from reductions in aggregate delivery costs owing to scale economies.     

Urbanization patterns: European versus less developed countries

This paper develops a model in which the interaction between transport costs, increasing returns to scale, and labor migration across sectors and regions creates a tendency for urban agglomeration. Demand from rural areas favors urban dispersion. European urbanization took place mainly in the 19th century, with higher costs of spatial interaction, weaker economies of scale, and a less-elastic supply of labor to the urban sector than in less developed countries (LDCs) today. These factors could help explain why primate cities dominate in LDCs, whereas a comparatively small share of urban population lives in Europe's largest cities.     

风险视角下的城市聚落形成模拟

幂次法则是普遍存在于自然科学和社会科学界的现象,而城市位序-规模法则是幂次法则在城市科学中的体现之一,然而特定城市规模分布一直缺乏完整的解释。本文尝试结合城市增长过程中土地开发行为的报酬递增规则与土地开发主体的风险认知行为,以城市增长的微观过程为切入视角模拟宏观城市聚落演化过程,进而探讨风险态度对城市聚落形态,尤其是对其规模分布的影响。研究结果表明：①即使城市聚落演化过程中存在多种风险态度,幂次法则在城市聚落的规模分布中仍保持着稳健性; ②现实世界中城市聚落规模分布的变异和稳定可能来自城市主体风险态度的多样性。     

GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM OF SPATIAL PRODUCT AND LABOR MARKETS*

ABSTRACT A simple general equilibrium model relates spatial product markets and spatial labor markets. The firm is treated as being a spatial monopolist or as a Löschian competitor in the output market and as a spatial monopsonist in the labor market. Derived free spatial demand and free regional labor supply are defined, and their properties examined. The model provides the framework for analyzing the impact of a technological improvement in labor productivity on the structure of the spatial markets. The impact of entry on spatial labor supply is an important determinant of whether or not entry lowers wages and raises output prices. Unlike the spaceless competitive paradigm, zero-profit long-run equilibrium can occur in a space economy under conditions of increasing returns to scale.     

THE ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE SUPPLY OF HOUSING*

ABSTRACT As the housing stock in a city is duplicated, developers must devote greater amounts of resources to the provision of infrastructure. If the production of infrastructure is characterized by decreasing returns to scale, this will cause the price of developable land to increase. The conditions under which an upward-sloping supply curve for housing will result are discussed. Using cross-sectional data for U.S. cities from 1973 to 1982, it is shown that land prices fail to increase with the quantity of construction and that the price elasticity of the supply of housing is infinite.     

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY UNCERTAINTY AND THE OPTIMAL LOCATION OF THE FIRM*

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the implication of production-technology uncertainty for the exclusion theorem. The paper presents the result that the risk-averse firm facing production technology uncertainty prefers an intermediate location to avoid risk under certain conditions. The firm chooses an intermediate location (over a corner location) particularly if its degree of risk aversion overwhelms the inherent convexity of profit with respect to location. The latter depends, in turn, on the structure of production technology characterized by the elasticity of substitution and returns to scale parameters.     

中国旅游产业集聚与产业效率的关系研究

基于中国31个省区的数据,测量与估算了2012年中国旅游产业六大要素部门的产业集聚现状;利用数据包络分析模型对各部门的技术效率进行评价,同时构建旅游产业集聚与技术效率的回归模型,探寻旅游产业集聚程度与产业效率之间的相互关系。结果表明:中国旅游产业整体集聚程度仍然偏低,且六大要素部门之间发展不均衡;当前我国各省区旅游业的产业规模普遍偏小,大部分省区旅游产业都处于规模报酬递增阶段;旅游产业的规模化集中度对产业技术效率有较强的积极影响,回归系数达到0.672;企业集中度、劳动力集中度对产业技术效率存在较小的消极影响。     

OLIGOPOLISTIC COMPETITION AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY*

ABSTRACT This paper studies a general equilibrium model of economic geography in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. This framework is conducive to analytic results. With increasing returns, oligopolistic competition leads to interindustry trade between regions rather than intraindustry trade. The choice of appropriate technology is a channel of concentration of industries.     

The direction of migration: a dynamic general equilibrium model

A two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model is developed "to investigate the direction of migration in response to differing demographic and consumption demand behavior, as well as variations in production conditions." The model, which involves a rural sector and an urban sector, incorporates "returns to scale and the natural rate of sectoral population growth as important determinants of the direction of migration, in addition to price and income elasticities, and the sectoral technical change rate with which...previous studies dealt."     

SPATIAL DEPENDENCY OF SEGREGATION INDICES

A few researchers have mentioned the scale sensitivity of segregation index, D. In this paper, I discuss analytically and empirically why using large enumeration areal units usually results in low segregation measures, and using small areal units produces relatively high segregation measures. The discussion is also applicable to the multi-group variant of D. A major finding is that if people of the same ethnic groups are positively spatially auto-correlated, increasing the size of areal units of analysis may not lower D initially, because only people of the same group are added. But enlarging the areal units subsequently may include population of other ethnic groups, and therefore could lower D. However, if the boundaries of the larger enumeration units are drawn to include only population of the same group, then D will not change significantly. Both the spatial autocorrelation of ethnic group population and zonal pattern are critical factors in determining the scale sensitivity of D.     

Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England

Abstract

Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirical signature of feedbacks between Smithian growth and agglomeration effects—among the towns of 16th century England. To do so, we test a model from settlement scaling theory against the 1524/5 Lay Subsidy returns. Analysis of these data indicates that Tudor towns exhibited IRS—a finding that is robust to alternative interpretations of the data. IRS holds even for the smallest towns in our sample, suggesting the absence of town size thresholds for the emergence of agglomeration effects. Spatial patterning of scaling residuals further suggests regional demand-side interactions with Smithian-agglomeration feedbacks. These findings suggest the presence of agglomeration effects and Smithian growth in pre-industrial English towns. This begs us to reconsider the economic performance of Early Modern English towns, and suggests that the qualitative economic dynamics of contemporary cities may be applicable to premodern settlements in general.     

社会资本影响区域经济增长的机理:基于"织网"模型的分析

社会资本对区域经济增长的影响是通过对区内企业、产业集群及区域整体等三个不同主体的影响发挥作用的。在企业由传统成长模式向网络化成长模式转变,产业集群由聚集经济向创新网络转变,区域由空闻结构向网络社会转变的过程中,社会网络及内含资源起着决定性作用。社会资本对三者的作用体现空间上的层次递进特征,即依循企业、集群、区域三个不同主体网络化递进发展的“织网模型”,依次由“发散状企业网络”向“经纬状集群网络”再向“多构面区域网络”发展的织网过程。社会资本及社会网络对企业的作用是摄取关键资源、信息等;对产业集群的影响是建立学习与创新机制、成本节约机制、形成合作竞争氛围;而对区域的积极意义是保持区域良好的信任文化。     

FIRE IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON: A SPATIALLY EXPLICIT MODEL FOR POLICY IMPACT ANALYSIS*

ABSTRACT.  This article implements a spatially explicit model to estimate the probability of forest and agricultural fires in the Brazilian Amazon. We innovate by using variables that reflect farm-gate prices of beef and soy, and also provide a conceptual model of field management and deforestation fires to simulate the impact of road-paving, cattle exports, and conservation area designation on the occurrence of fire. Our analysis shows that fire is positively correlated with the price of beef and soy, and that the creation of new conservation units may offset the negative environmental impacts caused by the increasing number of fire events associated with early stages of frontier development.     

尺度重构视角下行政区划演变的动力机制——以广东省为例

本文以尺度重构理论为分析框架,基于广东省改革开放以来行政区划演变的历程,剖析了各阶段区划演变的动力机制。研究认为,行政区划调整作为刚性的尺度调整工具,其发生周期、主要类型和动力来源嵌入在国家或区域为提升竞争力所采取的尺度战略及其相应的尺度重构方式之中。广东省的区划演变历程可归纳为"中央授权+中央调整地方权力尺度"、"中央放权+中央收权"和"广东省调整地方权力尺度"三个阶段性的尺度重构策略变动轨迹。此外,尺度重构可能体现在国家治理的诸多方面,由于各时期国家、区域宏观战略的不同,尺度重构的推动主体、内容指向会随之变化,空间生产策略也将进行调整,使得不同阶段对各地域空间赋予的尺度重要性大相径庭。