1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Urban Economic Analysis on Tokyo Monopolar System
| Project/Area Number |
08453004
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
経済政策(含経済事情)
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
TABUCHI Takatoshi University of Tokyo Faculty of Economics, Professor, 大学院・経済学研究科, 教授 (70133014)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KURODA Tatsuaki Nagoya University Graduate School of Human Informatics, Professor, 情報文化学部, 教授 (00183319)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1998
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| Keywords | agglomeration economies / variety / metropolitan area / interregional differential / real wage / urban economics / regional economy |
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| Research Abstract |
The focus of this research is to clarify the economic roles of urban agglomeration by econometrically measuring economic benefits and costs due to urban agglomeration. In the production side, urban agglomeration enhances the productivity of firms. In the consumption side, however, both agglomeration economies and diseconomies exist. The former, called economies of varieties, are derived from the fact that consumers can choose from a variety of differentiated goods, services, and job types. The latter are congestion such as insufficient housing and long distance commuting. We conducted quantitative analysis by using Japanese city-based data to see whether the former dominate the latter or not.
We found that the agglomeration economies dominate the agglomeration diseconomies both in production and in consumption. We also found that the agglomeration economies in production side push up the nominal wages while the agglomeration economies in consumption side push down the real wages. It is often considered that the Tokyo Monopolar System is negative for households. However, our results show that it is positive because the economies of varieties increase the utility level of households.
We used various kinds of amenities and environmental variables so as to control the impacts of urban environments. As byproducts, we had city-based data of amenities and environmental variables, which would help our future research on urban economics.
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