Spatial Economics: Density, Potential, and Flow

Beckmann, M.J. & Puu, T. (1985). Spatial Economics: Density, Potential, and Flow. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-444-87771-1

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Abstract

Location theory has traditionally considered space as a two-dimensional Euclidean continuum. It has resorted to geometric constructions and emphasized geometric and geographic intuition. More recently, the emergence of linear and mathematical programming methods in regional analysis has favored an abstract indexing of locations. The matrix of spatial relationships has become the matrix of point-pairs. But the intuitive notions of two-dimensional space have been lost in the process.

The purpose of this book is to reintroduce the two-dimensional continuum as the natural spatial setting of economic activities and to exploit the idea for all its worth. Economic interaction between agents are viewed as flows, of commodities or persons. These flows are generated by production and consumption activities, which represent the sources and sinks of a flow field. The direction of flow is oriented by principles of cost minimization and/or of profit or utility maximization. In this way neoclassical economics is wedded to the hydrodynamics of flow fields.

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