PHYSICIAN LOCATION BEHAVIOUR IN METROPOLITAN TORONTO

How physicians choose their places of practice within urban areas is a basic problem in understanding health care delivery systems. Using the results of a postal survey in metropolitan Toronto, location factors important to physicians are examined using several different categories of analysis. As a result, three locational situations are discussed for their importance in the physician location decision and as the basis for a policy to influence the location of physicians in urban areas.
Comment les médecins choisissent l'emplacement de leur cabinet dans les secteurs urbains s'avère être un problème fondamental pour comprendre les systèmes de prestation de soins de santé. En se servant des résultats d'un sondage postal effectué dans la métropole torontoise, les facteurs de location importants aux médecins sont examinés en utilisant diverses catégories d'analyse différentes. En conséquence, trois situations d'emplacement sont discutées d'après leur importance dans la décision du médecin concernant son choix de location. Elles servent également comme base à une politique pour influencer l'emplacement des médecins dans les secteurs urbains.     

METROPOLITAN AGGLOMERATION AND SECTORAL AGGREGATION*

ABSTRACT. This paper proposes a procedure with which sectoral production functions can be aggregated to metropolitan production functions in the presence of external economies of scale. The procedure specifies the production functions as part of general equilibrium models. Consistency of a one-sector and a two-sector general equilibrium model is defined in terms of equality of the distribution of a nation's population over its metropolitan areas in autarky.     

MIGRATION AND POPULATION CHANGE WITHIN METROPOLITAN TORONTO, 1966–71

Although net natural increase accounts for slightly more than half of the over-all growth in the population of Metropolitan Toronto between 1966 and 1971, the redistribution of the 1966 population and the addition of people from outside the metropolitan area are more important in understanding spatial variations in population change. Longer-term residents have tended to move away from the inner municipalities, but the pattern of a suburbanizing population has been obscured by the tendency of recent immigrants to reside in the inner areas.     

CENTER POINTS, EQUILIBRIUM POSITIONS, AND THE OBNOXIOUS LOCATION PROBLEM

ABSTRACT. Real variable analysis has een used to great benefit in a variety of classical problems in location theory. In this paper we explore basic complex variable techniques in one formulation of the obnoxious location problem. A general definition of center points is first given and used to formulate several alternate versions of the obnoxious location problem. A logarithmic transformation is then used to demonstrate some equivalences between these families of distinct location problems (defined via center points). A prototype logarithmic potential function which results from this formulation is then investigated, and it is demonstrated that the extremal solutions with this objective reside on the boundary of its domain of definition. An application using zero- and one-dimensional centers is discussed, and a generalization to the spatial obnoxious problem is also briefly examined. We define a zero-dimensional center as a critical point of the logarithmic potential function, and it is shown that these centers are equivalent to the solutions of the Complex Moment Problem.     

LOCATION,THEORY OF PRODUCTION,AND VARIABLE TRANSPORTATION RATES*

ABSTRACT. The question of what conditions insure independence between location and output decisions is investigated within the context of triangle space. Assuming that transportation rates vary with quantity and distance, it is shown that this independence is insured if the production function generates a linear expansion path and the following are all constant: transportation rate elasticities with respect to distance and quantity, and the price elasticity of demand for inputs.     

METROPOLITAN AND NON-METROPOLITAN POPULATION TRENDS IN CANADA, 1966–1982

This paper discusses broad population movements within and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions in Canada during the recent past. It is based on an annual series of aggregate migration at the metropolitan level. Three complementary approaches are used in order to distill information from this vast array of interregional flows. The first is based on net migration. The second, disequilibrium analysis, is based on the difference between the observed population shares of regions and a set of calculated steady-state population shares which would result if the currently observed set of interregional migration rates remained constant. Both approaches indicate short-term effects of migration on the evolving pattern of regional growth and decline. The third approach, based on aggregate interregional flows, allows one to observe some changes in migration behaviour which are not made evident by the first two approaches.     

HETEROGENEOUS TASTES AND RESIDENTIAL LOCATION*

ABSTRACT. In a simple urban model, where the only spatial distinction made is between center and suburb, we introduce a uniform distribution of preferences for land. Under a logarithmic utility function, we examine how the location and consumption decisions of individuals differ in consequence of their different preferences for land. Comparative statics indicate that the qualitative response of the city at equilibrium to changes in per capita income and transportation cost is not affected by the introduction of such heterogeneity. Possible extensions are also briefly discussed.     

THE EFFECTS OF TAXES,EXPENDITURES, AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE ON METROPOLITAN AREA EMPLOYMENT*

ABSTRACT. Data for 28 metropolitan areas over a 15-year period are used to determine the impacts of government spending, taxes, and public infrastructure on total employment and disaggregated employment. After carefully controlling for the government budget constraint we find that taxes are negatively related to total employment and education spending is positively related to total employment. Nevertheless, we find that it is difficult for metropolitan areas to influence the composition of their employment with government tax and expenditure policies. Moreover, at current levels of public infrastructure, marginal changes in infrastructure have no strong effect on employment.