Spatial aspects of economic development

Abstract

This paper derives and compares aggregate demand functions for a given product in a spaceless and spatial economy in which buyers are identical in number, income, and tastes. The profit maximizing prices in each system are then derived, following which an analysis is provided of the impact on spatial prices of changing distributions of buyers over the space. The price trends in a population expanding economy are determined, before and after the nation’s frontiers have been reached. The paper thus presents a view of how the concept of economic space and, in effect, its related analysis of the prices of spatial sellers yields a theory of the firm which intrinsically contains perspectives vital to research in the fields of economic theory. © 1972, JAPAN SECTION OF THE REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL. All rights reserved.