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References
While in a previous paper I have tried to combine the Thünen, Christaller, and Lösch models by applying them to different parts of the economy, in the present article I try to integrate the three systems in a more fundamental way. See: E. von Böventer, “Die Struktur der Landschaft; Versuch einer Synthese und Weiterentwicklung der Modelle J. H. von Thünens, W. Christallers und A. Löschs,”Schriften des, Vereins für Socialpolitik, N.F., 27, pp. 77–133, Berlin, 1962.
A general equilibrium type of approach has also been chosen by this author in his recent bookTheorie des räumlichen Gleichgewichts, Tübingen, Mohr (Siebeck), 1962.
We thus have the same kind of correspondence principle as holds for static theory and dynamic economic theory when all time subscripts are dropped.
For an extension of this kind, see: Edgar S. Dunn,The Location of Agricultural Production, Gainesville, Fla., University of Florida Press, 1954. Dunn also extends the analysis on thefirm level.
William Alonso,A Model of the Urban Land Market, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1960.
The bid rent function is a function which for each particular use shows (on the basis of given profit or utility levels) what rents the producers or consumers would be willing to pay for a unit of land, as function of the distance from the Center. This concept has been introduced by Alonso,op. cit. William Alonso,A Model of the Urban Land Market, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1960.
Note that acombination of certain processes or of agricultural crops can only be justified by input economies arising out of this combination or by advantages of a crop rotation. It would never pay, unless heavy imperfections of the markets were present, to combineindependent activities.
See: August Lösch,The Economics of Location, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1954, pp. 94–97.
See: Brian J. L. Berry and Allen Pred,Central Place Studies, Philadelphia, Regional Science Research Institute, 1961; and Walter Isard,Location, and Space-Economy, New York, John Wiley, 1956, for more detailed summary of Christaller and Lösch.
The most important factors in this connection are discussed by Isard,op. cit., Walter Isard,Location and Space-Economy, New York, John Wiley, 1956, for more detailed summary of Christaller and Lösch. pp. 269 ff.
On this point, see, W.F. Stolper, “Standorttheorie und Theorie des internationalen Handles,”Zeitschrift fuer die gesamte Staatswissenschaft, vol. 112, 1956, pp. 193–217.
The Christaller system can be tested for itsoverall validity with regard to the hierarchy of the central places, where the individual market nets are neglected and where, most important, they do not have to comply with the theory (as in general they do not, at least not for the industrial goods). But the Lösch system does not have such aggregative features; therefore a test of this system rests on the findings for individual commodities—unless one forgets completely about the important feature of specialization and concentrates only on spatial densities.
An extension along these lines has been attempted by the author in the paper “Die Struktur der Landschaft,”loc. cit.The Christaller system can be tested for itsoverall validity with regard to the hierarchy of the central places, where the individual market nets are neglected and where, most important, they do not have to comply with the theory (as in general they do not, at least not for the industrial goods). But the Lösch system does not have such aggregative features; therefore a test of this system rests on the findings for individual commodities—unless one forgets completely about the important feature of specialization and concentrates only on spatial densities.
See: Edger M. Hoover,Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1937; and Isard,op. cit. Walter IsardLocation and Space-Economy, New York, John Wiley, 1956, for more detailed summary of Christaller and Lösch.
See: Isard,op. cit., Walter Isard,Location and Space-Economy, New York, John Wiley, 1956, for more detailed summary of Christaller and Lösch. ch. 10, for further details.
Ibid, Walter Isard,Location and Space-Economy, New York, John Wiley, 1956, for more detailed summary of Christaller and Lösch. p. 138.
See: Hoover,op. cit.,, pp. 99–103.
See: myTheorie ...op. cit.,, pp. 158–161.
See: Bertil G. Ohlin,Interregional and International Trade, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1933, pp. 212–220.
See also: Hoover,op. cit.,, ch. IV.
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The author is associated with the University of Münster, Germany. He expresses his gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation for enabling him to do this research in Philadelphia and in Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., and to the members of the Department of Regional Science at the University of Pennsylvania for many valuable discussions and suggestions.
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von Böventer, E. Towards a united theory of spatial economic structure. Papers of the Regional Science Association 10, 163–187 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01934685
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01934685