Abstract
This paper analyses the income distribution of households in Barcelona metropolitan area. For this purpose we use the monocentric model. As the basic model does not have direct implications for this distribution, we survey the extensions of the model that have been used in empirical literature. One of the most promising ways is to introduce externalities in the decision process; they can result directly from exogenous amenities (given traits of urban area) or be created by other agents’ decisions. We first test the simple model relating income to distance. Then we introduce and test the model with exogenous amenities; recreational areas, transportation systems, health, educational and cultural infrastructure. In the third stage we test the model with spatial effects. We present evidence that any model with spatial effects improves significantly the empirical results.
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Notes
To close the model, two additional conditions are required: the bid-rent at the edge of the city must be equal to the agricultural rent, \(R(x_{\text {m}},y)= r_{\text {a}}\), and the whole population N, have to be located in the city: \(\pi x_{\text {m}}^2 = NL\).
It can be thought as an index number with different weighted attributes.
This is the hypothesis that Brueckner et al. (1999) argue for the different patterns in Paris and Detroit.
We consider the CBD as the oldest district in the Barcelona Municipality; the city hall, the headquarters of regional government and large commercial and clerical activities of large companies are located there.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Raymond Lagonigro for his help in data collecting. We also thank the Data Analysis and Modeling research group for the fruitful discussions we held together. This research was partially supported by Grant MTM2012-38067-C02 from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. We thank the reviewers of this paper for their useful comments and suggestions which have led to an improvement of the manuscript.
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Madariaga, R., Martori, J.C. & Oller, R. Income, distance and amenities. An empirical analysis. Empir Econ 47, 1129–1146 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-013-0772-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-013-0772-8