Modelling in Urban and Regional Economics

1. MONOCENTRIC MODELS

In this section we will examine the application of simulation to a number of themes in monocentric analysis. Each theme represents an area of policy or scientific interest in which prior analytical exploration quickly reached its limits and thus the application of simulation was warranted. In reviewing these themes, we will indicate why analytical investigation failed in answering the key questions and thus why numerical simulation was necessary. We will focus on what was learned from the simulations and to what extent the new knowledge enriched our understanding of reality and our insight into important policy questions. Monocentric analysis has done well to illustrate the complementarity between theory and simulation: ...