IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa05p56.html

Does the Shape of a Territory Influence the Locations of Human Activities? a Numerical Geography Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Dominique Peeters

  • Isabelle Thomas

Abstract

This paper aims at showing how far the shape of a studied area influences the results of optimal location-allocation models. Simulations are performed on rectangular toy-networks with an equal number of vertices but with different length/width ratios. The case of merging two such networks into a common market is also considered. We limit our experience to the Simple Plant Location Problem (SPLP) which captures the fundamental trade-off of economic geography between accessibility and economies-of-scales. Results are analysed in terms of locations, allocations and costs. The results help at understanding how far an area (country/region) has larger development problems than others just because of its shape and/or of the way this area is linked within a common market (elongation of the country and length of the common border). Several real world examples are discussed when interpreting of the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominique Peeters & Isabelle Thomas, 2005. "Does the Shape of a Territory Influence the Locations of Human Activities? a Numerical Geography Approach," ERSA conference papers ersa05p56, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p56
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa05/papers/56.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dominique Peeters & Jacques-François Thisse & Isabelle Thomas, 2000. "On High-Speed Connections and the Location of Activities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(12), pages 2097-2112, December.
    2. Beckmann, Martin J. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1987. "The location of production activities," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. Nijkamp (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 21-95, Elsevier.
    3. labbe, M. & Peeters, D. & Thisse, J.F., 1992. "Location on Networks," Papers 9216, Universite Libre de Bruxelles - C.E.M.E..
    4. Crozet, Matthieu & Koenig Soubeyran, Pamina, 2004. "EU enlargement and the internal geography of countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 265-279, June.
    5. Mary Amiti & Lisa Cameron, 2007. "Economic Geography and Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 15-29, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Mion, Giordano, 2004. "Spatial externalities and empirical analysis: the case of Italy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 97-118, July.
    8. Dominique Peeters & Isabelle Thomas, 1995. "The Effect of Spatial Structure on p -Median Results," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 366-373, November.
    9. PEETERS, Dominique & THISSE, Jacques-François & THOMAS, Isabelle, 1998. "Transportation networks and the location of human activities," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1344, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. repec:cor:louvrp:-1189 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2004. "Evidence on the nature and sources of agglomeration economies," 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 49, pages 2119-2171, Elsevier.
    12. R. L. Francis & T. J. Lowe & Arie Tamir, 2000. "Aggregation Error Bounds for a Class of Location Models," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 294-307, April.
    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. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    2. Giordano Mion, 2013. "Input–Output Linkages, Proximity to Final Demand and the Location of Manufacturing Industries," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Riccardo Crescenzi & Marco Percoco (ed.), Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance, edition 127, pages 237-262, Springer.
    3. Gilles Duranton, 2007. "From cities to productivity and growth in developing countries," Working Papers tecipa-306, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    4. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," 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 247-348, Elsevier.
    5. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    6. Pierre-Philippe Combes, 2011. "The empirics of economic geography: how to draw policy implications?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(3), pages 567-592, September.
    7. Maria Florencia Granato, 2011. "REGIONAL NEW ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY (refereed paper)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p747, European Regional Science Association.
    8. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Paul Courtney & Denis Lépicier & Bertrand Schmitt, 2005. "Rural firms, farms and the local economy - a focus on small and medium-sized towns," ERSA conference papers ersa05p128, European Regional Science Association.
    10. 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.
    11. Farrokhi, Farid & Jinkins, David, 2019. "Wage inequality and the location of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 76-92.
    12. Stephan Brunow & Peter Nijkamp, 2013. "Firm Formation and Agglomeration under Monopolistic Competition," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-134/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Castells-Quintana, David & Dienesch, Elisa & Krause, Melanie, 2021. "Air pollution in an urban world: A global view on density, cities and emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Zhou, Ying, 2015. "Co-location and Spatial Wage Spillovers in China: The Role of Foreign Ownership and Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 629-644.
    15. International Monetary Fund, 2004. "Trade and Industrial Location with Heterogeneous Labor," IMF Working Papers 2004/103, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Hanlon, W. Walker & Miscio, Antonio, 2017. "Agglomeration: A long-run panel data approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-14.
    17. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2006. "Regional wage and employment responses to market potential in the EU," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 573-594, September.
    18. Maarten Bosker & Harry Garretsen, 2010. "Trade costs in empirical New Economic Geography," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(3), pages 485-511, August.
    19. CRESPO, Nuno & FONTOURA, Maria Paula, 2013. "Regional Integration And Internal Economic Geography - An Empirical Evaluation With Portuguese Data," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(2), pages 99-116.
    20. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Arne Feddersen, 2010. "From periphery to core: economic adjustments to high speed rail," Working Papers 2010/38, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    21. Jiao, Jingjuan & Zhang, Qilin & Jiang, Runze & Lyu, Guowei, 2025. "Does high-speed rail contribute to cross-boundary agglomeration of migrant workers? Evidence from China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p56. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.