Advances in Spatial Equilibrium Modelling: Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

The contributions in this book demonstrate the wealth of efforts which have been made to study spatial economic interactions by means of formal analysis, using input-output (IO), spatial price equilibrium (SPE) and general equilibrium (GE) type of models. The SPE framework, developed by Samuelson and Takayama, assumes a special place in the field of spatial economics, as it is focusing on a socially optimal set of spatial commodity flows derived by using a market-based system description. The SPE model has theoretically and methodologically been elaborated in many directions and has also seen many applications (see especially Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 10 of the present volume). In the first chapter, Professor Takayama carefully describes the historical process and the critical researches and publications that have shaped the present field of Spatial Price Equilibrium Modelling. In the second Chapter the SPE model is discussed in a wider context of spatial equilibrium analysis in a multi-regional framework, including also IO, econometric, (C)GE, linear endogenous price, and hybrid sequential models. To illustrate a special and important type of application of such models, this discussion is placed in the context of transport policy issues.