Abstract
Two sources of urban growth differentials that intimately stem from the interdependencies between cities are unequal gains from interurban commodity trade, and spatial differentials in corporate ownership. Each of these phenomena has the potential of redistributing the physical and monetary surplus accruing from production unevenly between cities. This study develops a theoretical model to examine these problems, taking as its starting point a Marxian model of reproduction, prices, profits and wages. An interurban model of production and trade for a capitalist society with production restricted to small enterprises is constructed. Some system-wide and local accounting relationships are formulated that reveal the flows of profits, investment income, and surplus value between cities as a result of the postulated trading patterns. These are used to demonstrate the difference between profit and surplus value movements among locations, and to mathematically formulate the classical problem of unequal exchange of labour values relative to monetary values.
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Sheppard, E. Commodity trade, corporate ownership and urban growth. Papers of the Regional Science Association 52, 175–186 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01944101
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01944101