Spatial Pattern and City Size Distribution

本論文は都市の空間パターンと人口規模分布を説明する理論モデルを紹介し、地域経済の空間構造に関してそれらから得られる知見と未解決の問題について体系的に整理する。都市形成の空間パターンについて明示的な結果を得るには、空間経済学の理論研究において最も一般的な2地域モデルや都市システムモデル等、地域間距離の多様性を捨象した定式化から離れる必要があり、このことが多地域経済の空間構造ついて殆ど理論モデルが提案されていない主要な理由である。本論では、既存の2地域モデルを多地域経済に拡張し、都市の空間パターンと人口規模の多様性を関連付ける基本的なメカニズムについて事実との整合性に照らして解説する。

Many large cities are found at locations with certain first nature advantages. Yet, those exogenous locational features may not be the most potent forces governing the spatial pattern of cities. In particular, population size, spacing and industrial composition of cities exhibit simple, persistent and monotonic relationships. Theories of economic agglomeration suggest that this regularity is a consequence of interactions between endogenous agglomeration and dispersion forces. This paper reviews the extant formal models that explain the spatial pattern together with the size distribution of cities, and discusses the remaining research questions to be answered in this literature. To obtain results about explicit spatial patterns of cities, a model needs to depart from the most popular two-region and systems-of-cities frameworks in urban and regional economics in which there is no variation in interregional distance. This is one of the major reasons that only few formal models have been proposed in this literature. To draw implications as much as possible from the extant theories, this review involves extensive discussions on the behavior of the many-region extension of these models. The mechanisms that link the spatial pattern of cities and the diversity in city sizes are also discussed in detail.

Published: Mori, Tomoya, 2020. "Spatial Pattern and City Size Distribution," Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance.
https://oxfordre.com/economics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.001.0001/acrefore-9780190625979-e-295?rskey=Kzvjog&result=1