Différenciation spatiale des prix du logement à Monaco : une reformulation du concept de distance au centre

In urban economics, the residential location choice follows from comparison between housing price and transport cost towards town-center. The ALONSO-MUTH model rigorously describes the comparison terms and comes to the conclusion that ground values are decreasing with the center-distance. The analysis is based upon very strong hypothesis, in spite of all we inted confronting the « law of decreasing ground values » with the housing prices spatial distribution (for sale and hiring) in Monaco city. In spite of Monaco?s territory exiguity, the most important difficulty came from the real location of town-center. To reduce the center of the town to its historical core (we can easily detect) is not satisfying and we show that the « law » does not apply to this case. A more detailed analysis of the urban activities location leads to emphasize the more or less central character of the various urban districts. A hierarchy of centrality is constructed and a new measure of center-distance is defined (variation of centrality from the hierarchy top). When we substitute this one to the physical distance, housing prices are diminishing with centrality degree associated with the residence location. Classification JEL : R11, R110.