- Accuracy and Efficiency in Simulating Equilibrium Land Use Patterns for Self-Organizing Cities
- Xiaofang Dong, Stephen L Ross
- Journal of Economic Geography (2014) pp. 1–16
- 2249 20191115 () Views:382
- Lucas and Rossi-Hansberg (L&RH) (2002, Econometrica, 70: 1445–1476) and Fujita
and Ogawa (F&O) (1982, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 12: 161–196,
1989, Environment and Planning A, 21: 363–374) develop urban models in which
economic activity self-organizes due to spillovers in production. However, F&O (1982,
Regional Science and Urban Economics, 12: 161–196, 1989, Environment and
Planning A, 21: 363–374) show that rents and employment density are flat or falling
as the city center is approached, while in the simulations of L&RH (2002,
Econometrica, 70: 1445–1476), rents rise at an increasing rate toward the center
suggesting a concentration of employment near the center. For the Lucas and Rossi-
Hansberg model, we prove that land rents and density must be flat or falling near the
center. We explain how using a polar coordinate system when approximating a twodimensional
integral can create systematic imprecision in their simulations, and then
present revised simulations. The proofs and simulations suggest that in urban models
where economic activity self-organizes firms do not unduly cluster at the center of a
central business district even in monocentric equilibria
- JEL-Codes: R13, R14, R30
- Keywords: Non-monocentric cities, rent gradient, employment density, polar coordinate simulations
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