IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pot/vwldis/67b.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economy vs. History: What Does Actually Determine the Distribution of Firms' Locations in Cities?

Author

Listed:
  • Helge Sanner

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine in which cases economic forces or historical singularities prevail in the determination of the long-run distribution of firms. We develop a relatively general model of heterogenous firms' location choice in discrete space. The main force towards an agglomerated structure is the reduction of transaction costs for consumers if firms are located closely, whilst competition and transport costs work towards a more disperse structure. We then assess the importance of the initial conditions by simulating and comparing the resulting distribution of firms for identical economic parameters but varying initial settings. If the equilibrium distributions of firms are similar we conclude that economic forces have prevailed, while differences in the resulting distributions indicate that 'history' is more important. The (dis)similarity of distributions of firms is calculated by means of a measure, which exhibits a number of desirable features.

Suggested Citation

  • Helge Sanner, 2004. "Economy vs. History: What Does Actually Determine the Distribution of Firms' Locations in Cities?," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 67, Universität Potsdam, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät, revised Sep 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:pot:vwldis:67b
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-14134
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    2. A. Smithies, 1941. "Optimum Location in Spatial Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(3), pages 423-423.
    3. Pal, Debashis & Sarkar, Jyotirmoy, 2002. "Spatial competition among multi-store firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 163-190, February.
    4. Capozza, Dennis R & Van Order, Robert, 1978. "A Generalized Model of Spatial Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(5), pages 896-908, December.
    5. Chisholm, Darlene C. & Norman, George, 2004. "Heterogeneous preferences and location choice with multi-product firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 321-339, May.
    6. B. Curtis Eaton & Richard G. Lipsey, 1975. "The Principle of Minimum Differentiation Reconsidered: Some New Developments in the Theory of Spatial Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 42(1), pages 27-49.
    7. d'Aspremont, C & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, J-F, 1979. "On Hotelling's "Stability in Competition"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1145-1150, September.
    8. Winfried Koeniger & Omar Licandro, "undated". "Substitutability and Competition in the Dixit-Stiglitz Model," Working Papers 2004-06, FEDEA.
    9. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476, December.
    10. Tjalling C. Koopmans & Martin J. Beckmann, 1955. "Assignment Problems and the Location of Economic Activities," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 4, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    11. Nicholas Economides & Jamie Howell & Sergio Meza, 2002. "Does it Pay to be First? Sequential Locational Choice and Foreclosure," Working Papers 02-19, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    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. Norbert Eickhof & Kathrin Isele, 2005. "Do Economists Matter? Eine politökonomische Analyse des Einflusses wettbewerbspolitischer Leitbilder auf die europäische Fusionskontrolle," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 74, Universität Potsdam, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    2. Verena L. Holzer, 2004. "Does the German Renewable Energies Act fulfil Sustainable Development Objectives?," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 73, Universität Potsdam, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    3. Klaus Schöler, 2007. "Gibt es eine optimale Stadtgröße?," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 89, Universität Potsdam, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät.

    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. Helge Sanner, 2005. "Economy vs History - What Does Actually Determine the Distribution of Shops' Locations in Cities?," ERSA conference papers ersa05p175, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Helge Sanner, 2009. "Economy vs. history," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(2), pages 283-306, June.
    3. Shin‐Kun Peng & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2007. "Spatial Competition in Variety and Number of Stores," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 227-250, March.
    4. Chisholm, Darlene C. & Norman, George, 2004. "Heterogeneous preferences and location choice with multi-product firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 321-339, May.
    5. Borenstein, Severin & Netz, Janet, 1999. "Why do all the flights leave at 8 am?: Competition and departure-time differentiation in airline markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 611-640, July.
    6. Javier Elizalde & Markus Kinateder & Ignacio Rodríguez-Carreño, 2015. "Entry regulation, firm’s behaviour and social welfare," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 13-31, August.
    7. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "Agglomeration and economic geography," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 2563-2608, Elsevier.
    8. Granot, Daniel & Granot, Frieda & Raviv, Tal, 2010. "On competitive sequential location in a network with a decreasing demand intensity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 301-312, September.
    9. Stefano Colombo, 2016. "A Model of Three Cities," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 39(4), pages 386-416, October.
    10. Alan Roncoroni & Matus Medo, 2016. "Spatial firm competition in two dimensions with linear transportation costs: simulations and analytical results," Papers 1609.04944, arXiv.org.
    11. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    12. Laurent d'Ursel, 1983. "Politiques de « non-prix » : Equilibre et optimum," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 34(6), pages 1057-1088.
    13. Darlene C. Chisholm & George Norman, 2002. "Spatial Competition and Demand: An Application to Motion Pictures," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0216, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    14. Bertrand Ottino-Loffler & Forrest Stonedahl & Vipin Veetil & Uri Wilensky, 2017. "Spatial Competition with Interacting Agents," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 10(3), pages 75-91.
    15. Gallo, Fredrik, 2005. "Cournot Competition, Market Size Effects, and Agglomeration," Working Papers 2005:23, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    16. Wolfgang Keller, 2002. "Geographic Localization of International Technology Diffusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 120-142, March.
    17. Kelemen, József, 2020. "Szimultán Hotelling-modell Cobb-Douglas-hasznosságfüggvénnyel [A simultaneous Hotelling model with a Cobb-Douglas utility function]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 14-30.
    18. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2006. "Globalization and the Gains From Variety," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 541-585.
    19. Pierre Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Agglomeration and the adjustment of the spatial economy§," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 311-349, August.
    20. Alberto Franco Pozzolo, 2004. "Research and Development, Regional Spillovers and the Location of Economic Activities," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(4), pages 463-482, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm location choice; Discrete space; Path dependency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pot:vwldis:67b. 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: Marco Winkler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ltpotde.html .

    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.