Accuracy and efficiency in simulating equilibrium land-use patterns for self-organizing cities

Xiaofang Dong () and Stephen Ross

Journal of Economic Geography, 2015, vol. 15, issue 4, 707-722

Abstract: 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 two-dimensional 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.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbu044 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:15:y:2015:i:4:p:707-722.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Geography is currently edited by Jorge De la Roca, Stephen Gibbons, Simona Iammarino, Amanda Ross and James Faulconbridge

More articles in Journal of Economic Geography from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().