Urban Land Use and the Location of Polluting Plants

Abstract

In the early 1970s numerous articles were written to analyze urban land use. Some interesting examples include Mills and Mackinnon (1973), Oron Pines Sheshinski (1973), Alonso (1969), Dixit (1973), Mills (1972), Mirlees (1972), and Solow (1972, 1973). The models considered in all of these articles have used the following simplifying assumptions: a. The city is monocentric and all economic activity, i. e., production and marketing, is carried out in the Central Business District (CBD) where all job opportunities are located. b. The transportation system in the city is radial and equally dense in every direction. c. The only travel cost is the community cost of workers between their residence and their place of work in the CBD. d. No local public goods or bads are in evidence nor are there any neighborhood externalities. Therefore, the only spatial characteristic that matters to households is the distance from the CBD.