IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qed/wpaper/50.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consumer Choice when the Environment is a Variable: The Case of Residential Site Selection

Author

Listed:
  • John M. Hartwick

    (Queen's University)

Abstract

A consumer must decide not only to allocate his income among alternative items but also where to reside.The two decisions are ofcourse linked. On the income side, prices of goods often depend on shipping or transport costs and also one's net disposable income depends on one's out-of-pocket commuting costs; and on the personal utility side, where one's life directly affects the amount of leisure time available after commuting time has been expended. This paper redevelops the analytics of a consumer optimally selecting a site for his residence and shows that the problem of site selection is a special case of a more general problem of a consumer optimally selecting his environment, environment being a more general case of residential site. The point of departure is an attempt to conceptually refurbish Alonso's now classic treatment of residential site selection. It is in the reformulating of Alonso's treatment that the elements of mode selection, and supply and cost of government services are able to be incorporated into a consumer's optimal allocation of income problem.

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Hartwick, 1971. "Consumer Choice when the Environment is a Variable: The Case of Residential Site Selection," Working Paper 50, Economics Department, Queen's University.
  • Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:50
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/working_papers/papers/qed_wp_50.pdf
    File Function: First version 1971
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leon N. Moses, 1958. "Location and the Theory of Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 72(2), pages 259-272.
    2. Richard F. Muth, 1961. "The Spatial Structure Of The Housing Market," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 207-220, January.
    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. Hwang, Hong & Mai, Chao-Cheng & Shieh, Yeung-Nan, 1998. "Equilibrium production-location decisions under duopoly," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 123-133, January.
    2. Ian R. Gordon & Philip McCann, 2000. "Industrial Clusters: Complexes, Agglomeration and/or Social Networks?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 513-532, March.
    3. McCann, Philip & Arita, Tomokazu, 2006. "Clusters and regional development: Some cautionary observations from the semiconductor industry," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 157-180, June.
    4. Robert J. Stimson, 2014. "Proximity and endogenous regional development," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 1, pages 47-93, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    6. Gordon F. Mulligan, 1984. "Agglomeration and Central Place Theory: A Review of the Literature," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 1-42, September.
    7. Edwin S. Mills, 1970. "Urban Density Functions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 5-20, February.
    8. Martin Straka, 2021. "Design of a Computer-Aided Location Expert System Based on a Mathematical Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Changdong Ye & Qiluan He & Wanlin Huang & Haitao Ma, 2022. "Analysis of the Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Residences and Workplaces under the Influence of Metro Transportation in Metropolises from the Perspectives of Accessibility and Travelers’ Indu," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    10. Iammarino, Simona & McCann, Philip, 2006. "The structure and evolution of industrial clusters: Transactions, technology and knowledge spillovers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1018-1036, September.
    11. Barat, Josef, 1978. "Industrialização, urbanização e política de transportes: uma formulação para o desenvolvimento da Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 32(3), July.
    12. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:18:y:2004:i:1:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Redding, Stephen J. & Turner, Matthew A., 2015. "Transportation Costs and the Spatial Organization of Economic Activity," 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 1339-1398, Elsevier.
    14. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    15. Steven D. Gold, 1974. "The Distribution of Urban Government Services in Theory and Practice the Case of Recreation in Detroit," Public Finance Review, , vol. 2(1), pages 107-130, January.
    16. Hong Hwang & Chao‐cheng Mai, 1999. "Optimal Export Taxes with an Endogenous Location," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(4), pages 940-952, April.
    17. Marius Chofor Asaba & Fabian Duffner & Florian Frieden & Jens Leker & Stephan von Delft, 2022. "Location choice for large‐scale battery manufacturing plants: Exploring the role of clean energy, costs, and knowledge on location decisions in Europe," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1514-1527, August.
    18. Anas, Alex & Pines, David, 2008. "Anti-sprawl policies in a system of congested cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 408-423, September.
    19. Dilip K. Ghosh & Shyamasri Ghosh, 1997. "Optimum Choice of an MNC: Location and Investment," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 41(2), pages 41-46, October.
    20. Charles A. M. de Bartolome & Stephen L. Ross, 2002. "The Race to the Suburb: The Location of the Poor in a Metropolitan Area," Working papers 2002-02, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised May 2008.
    21. Adrienne DiTommaso & Robert T. Greenbaum, 2021. "An Examination of the Relationship Between Local Tax Incentives and Diversification of the Local Economic Base," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(2), pages 108-124, May.

    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:qed:wpaper:50. 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: Mark Babcock (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qedquca.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.