0000000000495428
AUTHOR
Jacques-françois Thisse
La distance en analyse spatiale : une approche axiomique
L'analyse spatiale met en lumière des processus d'interdépendance où ladistance joue un rôle explicatif fondamental. Une large partie de l'analyse spatiale est consacrée à l'étude de la forme de la relation entre les phénomènes économiques et sociaux observés et la distance à des lieux privilégiés, et aux variations de cette relation. Or cette forme est en partie conditionnée par la représentation de l'espace qu'on se donne, donc par la représentation de la distance dans cet espace. La littérature offre un certain nombre de spécifications analytiques de la distance entre deux lieux repérés par leurs coordonnées, par exemple la distance euclidienne, longtemps privilégiée, et plus récemment l…
Regional Inequality and Product Variety
We investigate how differences in set-up costs of various types affect the trade-off between global efficiency and spatial equity and show that the standard assumption of symmetry in fixed costs masks the existence of an interesting effect: the range of available varieties varies depends on the spatial distribution of firms. In such a setting, even when the market outcome leads to excessive agglomeration under symmetric fixed costs, a planner opts for asymmetric fixed costs and more agglomeration. The reason is that the losses induced by more agglomeration are offset by the gains due to additional product variety.
Commodity Tax Competition and Industry Location Under the Destination- and the Origin-Principle
We develop a model of commodity tax competition with monopolistically competitive internationally mobile firms, transport costs, and asymmetric country sizes. We investigate the impacts of non-cooperative tax setting, as well as of tax harmonization and changes in the tax principle, in both the short and the long run. The origin principle, when compared to the destination principle, is shown to exacerbate tax competition and to erode tax revenues, yet leads to a more equal spatial distribution of economic activity. This suggests that federations which care about spatial inequality, like the European Union, face a non-trivial choice for their tax principle that goes beyond the standard consi…