An elementary entropy-maximizing model of urban consumers

Conclusions

This paper has explored an elementary model of the location and allocation problems of the urban consumer. The model is predicated upon the assumptions that average incomes, spending on land and spending on transport are given, that consumers exactly spend their incomes, and that the price of land serves to equate the supply of and demand for land at each location. Detailed consequences of these assumptions are explored for a city with simple structure, although the method of analyzing more complex environments is also shown. Considering the simplicty of the assumptions, the model predicts quite complex behavior, as is evidenced by the relations between income and location. Many of the predictions of the model are intuitively reasonable, though, some predictions indicate that parts of the model need to be revised. In many respects, this model serves to provide an alternative route to the predictions which are made by economic urban models, a route which is more general than that followed by economic models in the sense that no assumptions are made concerning individual preferences and that the probability distributions which are obtained depend upon the geometry of the city (which need not therefore comprise a single center on a homogeneous plain).