This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date, and expert synthesis of location theory. What are the impacts of a firm’s geographic location on the locations of customers, suppliers, and competitors in a market economy? How, when, and why does this result in the clustering of firms in space? When and how is society made better or worse off as a result? This book uses dozens of locational models to address aspects of these three questions. Classical location problems considered include Greenhut-Manne, Hitchcock-Koopmans, and Weber-Launhardt. The book reinterprets competitive location theory, focusing on the linkages between Walrasian price equilibrium and the localization of firms. It also demonstrates that competitive location theory offers diverse ideas about the nature of market equilibrium in geographic space and its implications for a broad range of public policies, including free trade, industrial policy, regional development, and investment in infrastructure. With an extensive bibliography and fresh, interdisciplinary approach, the book will be an invaluable reference for academics and researchers with an interest in regional science, economic geography, and urban planning, as well as policy advisors, urban planners, and consultants.
The Geography of Competition
John R. Miron
The Geography of Competition Firms, Prices, and Localization
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John R. Miron Department of Social Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough 1265 Military Trail Toronto ON M1C 1A4 Canada
[email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-5625-5 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-5626-2 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-5626-2 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920156 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To Carol, my fellow traveler, for the spiritedness, love, companionship, counsel, enthusiasm, and forbearance that made this long journey possible. To all my family—tolerant and understanding though they be—from whom I have been inexcusably absent for far too long: “Don’t disturb Dad; he’s working.” To my father, whose keenness, curiosity, and relentlessness in seeking a good answer has been a lifelong inspiration.
Preface
This book focuses on three questions. First, what are the impacts of location decisions of firms—by affecting prices in various markets—on the locations of their customers, suppliers, and competitors in a market economy? Second, how, when, and why does this result in the clustering of firms in geographic space? Third, when and how is society—overall or by sector within it—made better or worse off as a result? At its heart, this book is in an area of scholarship that I label competitive location theory. Broadly, this is the study of how competition among firms leads to localization: geographic patterns of concentration among firms in markets in equilibrium. Competitive location theor