IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v14y1977i3p315-326.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Urban Hierarchy and Urban Area Production Function: A Synthesis

Author

Listed:
  • Gordon P. Schaefer

    (Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven)

Abstract

Urban production functions, often used to indicate optimal city size, usually deal with one city in isolation. This paper introduces differing production and transport costs and demand intensities in order to generate an urban hierarchy of differing urban sizes and market areas. It then distinguishes between continuous hierarchies with a single production function and discretely stepped hierarchies with differing production functions. The model is then applied in order to generate a seven-level hierarchy for 464 urban centres in Saskatchewan, but this is outperformed by the corresponding continuous hierarchy model. The policy implications for self-sustaining urban growth and the potential non-viability of small communities are then discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon P. Schaefer, 1977. "The Urban Hierarchy and Urban Area Production Function: A Synthesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 14(3), pages 315-326, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:14:y:1977:i:3:p:315-326
    DOI: 10.1080/00420987720080651
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420987720080651
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420987720080651?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pietro L. Fano, 1969. "Organization, City Size Distributions And Central Places†," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 29-38, January.
    2. Brian J.L. Berry & William L. Garrison, 1958. "Recent Developments Of Central Place Theory," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 107-120, January.
    3. Henderson, J V, 1974. "The Sizes and Types of Cities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 640-656, September.
    4. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    5. Brian J. L. Berry, 1964. "Cities As Systems Within Systems Of Cities," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 147-163, January.
    6. Edgar M. Hoover, 1970. "Transport Costs And The Spacing Of Central Places," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 255-274, April.
    7. William Alonso, 1971. "The Economics Of Urban Size†," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 67-83, January.
    8. Berndt, Ernst R. & Christensen, Laurits R., 1973. "The translog function and the substitution of equipment, structures, and labor in U.S. manufacturing 1929-68," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 81-113, March.
    9. Burgess, David F., 1974. "Production theory and the derived demand for imports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-117, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2009. "Challenges For France In The Emerging International Environment: A Dynamic Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 566-573, October.
    2. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2011. "Whither Germany and the EMU In a Challenging Environment?," Working Papers 0019, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    3. Ulrich R. Kohli, 1983. "The Le Châtelier Principle and the Demand for Imports in the Short Run and the Medium Run: Australia, 1959–60–1978–79," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 59(2), pages 149-165, June.
    4. Luis Orea & David Roibás & Alan Wall, 2004. "Choosing the Technical Efficiency Orientation to Analyze Firms' Technology: A Model Selection Test Approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 51-71, July.
    5. Brian J. L. Berry, 1995. "Whither Regional Science?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 17(3), pages 297-305, July.
    6. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2003. "The Italian Automotive Industry and Economies of Scale," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(3), pages 329-337, July.
    7. Al-Mutairi, Naief & Burney, Nadeem A., 2002. "Factor substitution, and economies of scale and utilisation in Kuwait's crude oil industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 337-354, July.
    8. Baptiste Boitier & Pascal da Costa & Pierre Le Mouel & Paul Zagamé, 2008. "Calculation of land use price and land use claims for agriculture, transport and urban land use at national level," Working Papers hal-01044651, HAL.
    9. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2008. "The South African Textile Industry: Challenges and Opportunities," Working Papers 0044, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    10. Robert Cervero, 2001. "Efficient Urbanisation: Economic Performance and the Shape of the Metropolis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(10), pages 1651-1671, September.
    11. Rodolfo Cermeño & Sirenia Vázquez, 2009. "Technological Backwardness in Agriculture: Is it Due to Lack of R&D, Human Capital, and Openness to International Trade?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 673-686, November.
    12. Lila J. Truett, 2010. "The Korean Textile Industry: Still Competitive, After All These Years?," Working Papers 0004, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    13. Lall, Somik V. & Shalizi, Zmarak & Deichmann, Uwe, 2004. "Agglomeration economies and productivity in Indian industry," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 643-673, April.
    14. Tzouvelekas, Evaggelos, 2000. "Approximation Properties and Estimation of the Translog Production Function with Panel Data," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(1), pages 1-16, January.
    15. Sebastian M. Deininger & Lukas Mohler & Daniel Mueller, 2018. "Factor substitution in Swiss manufacturing: empirical evidence using micro panel data," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 154(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Richmond, J, 2000. "Separability and Specification Tests," Economics Discussion Papers 8832, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    17. Hoque, Anwarul & Adelaja, Adesoji, 1984. "TfIE LONG RUN RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AVERAGE AND MARGINAL COST," 1984 Annual Meeting, August 5-8, Ithaca, New York 278914, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Lila J. Truett, 2010. "The Korean Textile Industry: Still Competitive, After All These Years?," Working Papers 0004, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    19. Eric Sheppard, 1982. "City Size Distributions and Spatial Economic Change," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 7(2), pages 127-151, October.
    20. Boqiang Lin & Kui Liu, 2017. "Energy Substitution Effect on China’s Heavy Industry: Perspectives of a Translog Production Function and Ridge Regression," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:14:y:1977:i:3:p:315-326. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.