Working Paper : 1021


Authors Kyriakopoulou, E. and Xepapadeas, A.
Title Environmental Policy and the Collapse of the Monocentric City
Abstract We explain the spatial concentration of economic activity, in a model of economic geography, when the cost of environmental policy - which is increasing in the concentration of pollution - acts as a centrifugal force, while positive knowledge spillovers and a site with natural cost advantage act as centripetal forces. We study the agglomeration e ects caused by trade-o s between centripetal and centrifugal forces which eventually determine the distribution of economic activity across space. The rational expectations market equilibrium with spatially myopic environmental policy results either in a monocentric or in a polycentric city with the major cluster at the natural advantage site. The regulator�s optimum results in a bicentric city which suggests that when environmental policy is spatially optimal, the natural advantage sites do not act as attractors of economic activity.
Keywords Agglomeration, Space, Environmental policy, Natural cost advantage, Knowledge spillovers, Monocentric-bicentric city
Classification JEL R38, Q58
File Environmental_Monocentric_City.pdf (398623 bytes)
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