SELF-ORGANIZATION OF LÖSCH'S HEXAGONS IN ECONOMIC AGGLOMERATION FOR CORE-PERIPHERY MODELS

Abstract

Hexagonal population distributions of several sizes are shown to be self-organized from a uniformly inhabited state, which is modeled by a system of places (cities) on a hexagonal lattice. Microeconomic interactions among the places are expressed by a core-periphery model in new economic geography. Lösch's ten smallest hexagonal distributions in central place theory are guaranteed to be existent by equivariant bifurcation analysis on D 6 ∔ (ℤn × ℤn), and are obtained by computational analysis. The missing link between central place theory and new economic geography has thus been discovered in light of the bifurcation analysis.