This volume reproduces some important contributions to regional and urban economics made by Noboru Sakashita - one of the lead ing scholars in this field. Since graduation from the University of Tokyo, Noboru Sakashita has been teaching and advancing the re search at Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, Osaka University and the' University of Tsukuba. The career of Noboru Sakashita as a regional and urban econo mist started in 1965 when he visited the University of Pennsylvania's Regional Science Department as a Fulbright scholar. While staying there, he concentrated on research on regional science in a stimula tive atmosphere surrounded by Walter Isard, the founder of Region al Science, and Isard's young colleagues, all of who were full of pas sion for this newborn research field. The first two papers in this vo lume were written during his stay at the University of Pennsylvania. Since returning to Japan, he has been carrying out his own research activities as well as fostering many promising disciplines in the field of regional and urban economics. Of course, Noboru Sakashita is a world renowned famous scholar, presenting many influential papers at World Congress, North American and European Meetings of the Regional Science Association, and other conferences, and publishing many articles in respected journals. He was elected president of the Regional Science Association International for 1987-88, and served as the first president of the Applied Regional Science Conference from 1987 to 1989.

This volume reproduces some important contributions to regional and urban economics made by Noboru Sakashita - one of the lead ing scholars in this field. Since graduation from the University of Tokyo, Noboru Sakashita has been teaching and advancing the re search at Hokkaido University, Tohoku University, Osaka University and the' University of Tsukuba. The career of Noboru Sakashita as a regional and urban econo mist started in 1965 when he visited the University of Pennsylvania's Regional Science Department as a Fulbright scholar. While staying there, he concentrated on research on regional science in a stimula tive atmosphere surrounded by Walter Isard, the founder of Region al Science, and Isard's young colleagues, all of who were full of pas sion for this newborn research field. The first two papers in this vo lume were written during his stay at the University of Pennsylvania. Since returning to Japan, he has been carrying out his own research activities as well as fostering many promising disciplines in the field of regional and urban economics. Of course, Noboru Sakashita is a world renowned famous scholar, presenting many influential papers at World Congress, North American and European Meetings of the Regional Science Association, and other conferences, and publishing many articles in respected journals. He was elected president of the Regional Science Association International for 1987-88, and served as the first president of the Applied Regional Science Conference from 1987 to 1989.

Over the past thirty years, urban economic theory has been one of the most active areas of urban and regional economic research. Just as static general equilibrium theory is at the core of modern microeconomics, so is the topic of this book - the static allocation of resources within a city and between cities - at the core of urban economic theory. An Essay on Urban Economic Theory well reflects the state of the field. Part I provides an elegant, coherent, and rigorous presentation of several variants of the monocentric (city) model - as the centerpiece of urban economic theory - treating equilibrium, optimum, and comparative statistics. Part II explores less familiar and even some uncharted territory. The monocentric model looks at a single city in isolation, taking as given a central business district surrounded by residences. Part II, in contrast, makes the intra-urban location of residential and non-residential activity the outcome of the fundamental tradeoff between the propensity to interact and the aversion to crowding; the resulting pattern of agglomeration may be polycentric. Part II also develops models of an urbanized economy with trade between specialized cities and examines how the market-determined size distribution of cities differs from the optimum. This book launches a new series, Advances in Urban and Regional Economics. The series aims to provide an outlet for longer scholarly works dealing with topics in urban and regional economics.

Regional Economics: Fundamental Concepts, Policies, and Institutions is a unique and unconventional economics textbook which emphasizes the role of 'space' in economics and highlights the importance of non-economic factors particularly the role of institutions in regional development. It also presents the approach on how to evaluate regional development performance based on economic, social, and environmental considerations, which is the organizing principle for meeting people-oriented development and sustainable development goals. Other essential concepts such as 'regional science' and 'spatial economics' are also explored in this book.Why activities tend to be spatially concentrated and can get more intensified despite efforts to disperse them toward other regions? Why infrastructure development intended to increase activities and improve the population's welfare can produce the opposite outcome of greater interregional inequality? What is the role of regional and national policies in affecting growth incentives, and how non-economic factors such as institutions and the quality of local leaders can make a difference in welfare achievement? Addressing these questions allows readers to better understand the various phenomena in the actual development process.

Prices and quantities of both stock and flow variables in an economic system are decisively influenced by their spatial coordinates. Any equilibrium state also mirrors the underlying spatial structure and a tatonnement process also incorporates the spatial ramifications of consumer and producer behaviour. The recognition ofthe spatial element in the formation of a general equilibrium in a complex space-economy already dates back to early work of LOsch, Isard and Samuelson, but it reached a stage of maturity thanks to the new inroads made by T. Takayama. This book is devoted to spatial economic equilibrium (SPE) analysis and is meant to pay homage to the founding father of modern spatial economic thinking, Professor Takayama. This book witnesses his great talents in clear and rigorous economic thinking regarding an area where for decades many economists have been groping in the dark. Everybody who wants to study the phenomenon of spatial economic equilibrium will necessarily come across Takayama's work, but this necessity is at the same time a great pleasure. Studying his work means a personal scientific enrichment in a field which is still not completely explored. The present volume brings together recent contributions to spatial equilibrium analysis, written by friends and colleagues of Takayama. The structure of the book is based on four main uses of spatial equilibrium models: (i) the imbedding of spatial flows in the economic environment, related to e.g.

This book provides the first unifying treatment of the range of economic reasons for the clustering of firms and households. Its goal is to explain further the trade-off between various forms of increasing returns and different types of mobility costs. Although referring to agglomeration as a generic term is convenient, it should be noted that the concept of economic agglomeration refers to distinct real world situations. The main focus of the treatment is on cities, but it also explores the formation of agglomerations, such as commercial districts within cities, industrial clusters at the regional level, and the existence of imbalance between regions. The book is rooted within the realm of modern economics and borrows concepts from geography and regional science, which makes it accessible to a broad audience formed by economists, geographers, regional planners, and other scientists. It may be used in coursework for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates.