A unified approach to economic geography models based on stochastic evolutionary dynamics

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K14735
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Civil engineering project/Traffic engineering
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Osawa Minoru 東北大学, 工学研究科, 助教 (50793709)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 確率動学 / 進化ゲーム / ポテンシャルゲーム / 経済地理学 / 集積の経済

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The uneven spatial distribution of economic activities at various spatial resolutions calls for theoretical explanation. To describe peaks and troughs in geographical allocation of economic activities, numerous theoretical models have been proposed in various division of economics including urban, regional, and international economics. The scattered nature of accumulated knowledge in spatial economics in general is inconvenient when we are to apply them to engineering problem including urban planning, as they may sometimes provide inconclusive implications depending model details. We develop a stochastic evolutionary dynamics-based approach to analyze the robust properties of spatial economic models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by applying it to the study of a canonical urban model which is known for its tractability; the results suggest that the properties of the model can be related to other regional models, thereby indicating a possible unification of theory.

Free Research Field

土木計画学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

地域・都市政策案等の計画案の評価の上で複数空間スケールにわたる経済集積の空間的秩序が自発的に形成されるメカニズムの理解は重要である．なぜならば，交通インフラなどの整備，用途地域見直し，交易制度改訂など地域・都市政策の実施は，人口・経済活動の空間配置に多大な影響を及ぼすと考えられる．従って，特定の案がもたらすであろう経済的影響の評価においては，そうした事後的な空間的配置の変化を考慮することが重要となる．空間経済学理論の目指す経済活動の集積に関する基本メカニズムの理解はその前提条件であり，したがって空間経済学モデルの体系化が工学的応用において求められる．本研究課題はこの点に貢献するものである．