An integrated production-stage analysis on market areas and supply areas

摘要

An integrated framework of the market-area and supply-area systems is applied to four representative hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate the effect of changes in spatially constrained economic factors on firm location. It is initially clarified that there is a mutual mechanism of both types of area in the integrated-framework approach by applying spatial duality theory. The analysis then explores single-center and multi-center models together with a notion of trade-off interaction between agglomeration economies and transportation costs. Finally, the model is extended to a case of the irregular spatial formation of market areas and corresponding supply areas where agglomeration economies are observed.