A Simple Model of Economic Geography à la Helpman-Tabuchi

Jacques Thisse and Yasusada Murata

No 4936, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper explores the interplay between commodities? transportation costs and workers? commuting costs within a general equilibrium framework à la Dixit-Stiglitz. Workers are mobile and choose a region to work in as well as an intra-urban location in which to live. We show that a more integrated economy need not be more agglomerated. Instead, low transportation costs lead to the dispersion of economic activities. This is because workers are able to alleviate the burden of urban costs by being dispersed, while retaining a good access to all varieties. By contrast, low commuting costs foster the agglomeration of economic activities.

Keywords: Commuting costs; Urban costs; Transportation costs; Economic geography; Agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (77)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4936 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: A simple model of economic geography a la Helpman-Tabuchi (2005)
Working Paper: A simple model of economic geography à la Helpman-Tabuchi (2005)
Working Paper: A simple model of economic geography à la Helpman-Tabuchi (2005)
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:cpr:ceprdp:4936

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4936

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().