On the Emergence of Cities

Scott E. Page

Research in Economics from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: This paper contains a description of a general class of city formation models. Individual economic agents have preferences for locations that depend on the population distribution. A location's attractiveness depends upon some combination of its population and its average distance to other agents. Economic variables enter indirectly. Taking this broad perspective leads to a deeper understanding of how cities form as well as of the sensitivity to intitial conditions of their locations and sizes. In addition, this class of models supports scenarios where cities emerge: without any assumptions that agents wish to live near or with one another, agents cluster into cities.

To appear in: Journal of Urban Economics.

Keywords: Cities; emergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: Written 1998-08
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