IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v45y2008i2p295-312.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Mills—Muth Model of Urban Spatial Structure: Surviving the Test of Time?

Author

Listed:
  • Christy Spivey

    (Department of Economics and Finance, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Campus Box 1102, Edwardsville, Illinois 62026, USA, cspivey@siue.edu)

Abstract

This paper examines the viability of some basic predictions of the Mills—Muth model of city structure for modern cities using US data for the year 2000. The estimation strategy used to test the predictions is very similar to that of Jan Brueckner and David Fansler, who use 1970 data to find support for the model's basic comparative statics predictions—namely, that city area is increasing in population and income but decreasing in agricultural land value and commuting costs. This paper uses different measures for land values and commuting costs where possible and a measure of polycentricity to estimate a slightly modified empirical model. Despite the changing structure of cities, there is evidence that the Mills—Muth comparative statics predictions hold for modern US cities, that densely populated cities are more likely to have sub-centres and that market forces drive urban spatial structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Christy Spivey, 2008. "The Mills—Muth Model of Urban Spatial Structure: Surviving the Test of Time?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 295-312, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:45:y:2008:i:2:p:295-312
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098007085964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098007085964
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098007085964?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. Alex Anas & Richard Arnott & Kenneth A. Small, 1998. "Urban Spatial Structure," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1426-1464, September.
    2. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    3. Hartwick, John & Schweizer, Urs & Varaiya, Pravin, 1976. "Comparative statics of a residential economy with several classes," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 396-413, December.
    4. Mankin, Wyatt, 1972. "A New Look at the Muth Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 980-981, December.
    5. Brueckner, Jan K & Fansler, David A, 1983. "The Economics of Urban Sprawl: Theory and Evidence on the Spatial Sizes of Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(3), pages 479-482, August.
    6. McMillen, Daniel P. & Smith, Stefani C., 2003. "The number of subcenters in large urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 321-338, May.
    7. Brueckner, Jan K., 1983. "The economics of urban yard space: An "implicit-market" model for housing attributes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 216-234, March.
    8. Wheaton, William C., 1974. "A comparative static analysis of urban spatial structure," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 223-237, October.
    9. Wheaton, William C., 1976. "On the optimal distribution of income among cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 31-44, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rémi Lemoy & Charles Raux & Pablo Jensen, 2016. "Exploring the polycentric city with multi-worker households: an agent-based microeconomic model," Post-Print hal-00602087, HAL.
    2. Gianni Guastella & Stefano Pareglio & Paolo Sckokai, 2017. "A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Land Use Efficiency in Large and Small Municipalities," Working Papers 2017.03, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Gianni Guastella & Stefano Pareglio, 2017. "Spatial Analysis Of Urbanization Patterns: The Case Of Land Use And Population Density In The Milan Metropolitan Area," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 89-102, July.

    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. Walid Oueslati & Seraphim Alvanides & Guy Garrod, 2015. "Determinants of urban sprawl in European cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(9), pages 1594-1614, July.
    2. Kurt Paulsen, 2014. "Geography, policy or market? New evidence on the measurement and causes of sprawl (and infill) in US metropolitan regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(12), pages 2629-2645, September.
    3. Borck, Rainald & Wrede, Matthias, 2005. "Political economy of commuting subsidies," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 478-499, May.
    4. Paulsen, Kurt, 2012. "Yet even more evidence on the spatial size of cities: Urban spatial expansion in the US, 1980–2000," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 561-568.
    5. Sato, Yasuhiro & Xiao, Wei, 2015. "Land development, search frictions and city structure," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 63-76.
    6. Yinger, John, 2021. "The price of access to jobs: Bid-function envelopes for commuting costs✰," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Frame, David E., 2001. "Insurance and Community Welfare," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 267-284, March.
    8. Barros Antunes Campos, Rodger & Squarize Chagas, André Luis, 2019. "Employment Sub-Centers in a Megacity from a Developing Country: The Case of the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil," TD NEREUS 5-2019, Núcleo de Economia Regional e Urbana da Universidade de São Paulo (NEREUS).
    9. Shanzi Ke & Yan Song & Ming He, 2009. "Determinants of Urban Spatial Scale: Chinese Cities in Transition," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(13), pages 2795-2813, December.
    10. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2015. "Urban Land Use," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 467-560, Elsevier.
    11. Qing Su & Joseph S. DeSalvo, 2008. "The Effect Of Transportation Subsidies On Urban Sprawl," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 567-594, August.
    12. Stephan Schmidt & Angelika Krehl & Stefan Fina & Stefan Siedentop, 2021. "Does the monocentric model work in a polycentric urban system? An examination of German metropolitan regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1674-1690, June.
    13. Jeffrey A. DiBartolomeo & Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2021. "On urban sprawl: Closed city, open city or does it even matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(6), pages 1527-1543, December.
    14. Haiwen Zhou, 2013. "The Choice of Technology and Rural-Urban Migration in Economic Development," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 8(3), pages 337-361, September.
    15. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    16. Berliant, Marcus & Wang, Ping, 2008. "Urban growth and subcenter formation: A trolley ride from the Staples Center to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 679-693, March.
    17. Brueckner, Jan K., 2005. "Transport subsidies, system choice, and urban sprawl," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 715-733, November.
    18. Jaume Masip Tresserra, 2012. "Identifying the Employment and Population Centers at regional and metropolitan scale: The Case of Catalonia and Barcelona," ERSA conference papers ersa12p70, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Lee, Sungwon & Lee, Bumsoo, 2014. "The influence of urban form on GHG emissions in the U.S. household sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 534-549.
    20. Marcy Burchfield & Henry G. Overman & Diego Puga & Matthew A. Turner, 2006. "Causes of Sprawl: A Portrait from Space," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 587-633.

    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:45:y:2008:i:2:p:295-312. 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.