Institut national d'études démographiques

Séminaire "Démodynamiques"

The Law of Market Areas and the Size Distribution of Urban Centres

John Parr

Jeudi 8 octobre 1998,  de 14 à 15h (salle 111/121)

^(*) Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RS, UK

Within most nations of the world, today and throughout much of recent history, the size distribution of urban centres displays a high  degrees of regularity. Most distributors conform closely to the rank-size or Pareto function. Naturally, regularity of this degree demands an explanation. In the past several explanations have been offered. One such explanation looks to the urban system, and in particular to central place theory. However, size distribution of centres underlying the typical model of central place theory stands in marked contrast to size distribution actually observed. This even tends to be the case when the urban system in question can be adequately characterised in terms of central place theory. The reason for this contrast lies with the simplified nature of the market-area structure within the central place model. A considerably more complex structure emerges when the Economic Law of Market Area is introduced. Using the market-area structure, a size distribution of centres is derived, which is much more in agreement with the observed size distributions of urban systems, including those in wich the central place sub-system predominates.

La discussion sera introduite par France Guérin (INED)