Where in cities do "rich" and "poor" people live? The urban economics model revisited

E-print/Working paper (2016)

In this work, we exploit the power of the Alonso-Mills-Muth (AMM) urban economics model and show that various utility functions and plausible conditions offer alternative explanations of house- holds’ ... [more ▼]

In this work, we exploit the power of the Alonso-Mills-Muth (AMM) urban economics model and show that various utility functions and plausible conditions offer alternative explanations of house- holds’ location by income within a city. These include the existence of a “rich” center and more complex socio-spatial urban forms, for instance alternating a rich center, poor suburbs and a rich outer ring, which have not yet been derived from the AMM model to our knowledge. In doing so we combine analytical ideas and illustrations by the means of an agent-based model. The hypothesis of a central or non-central amenity is also studied, leading to different insights on the issue. [less ▲]

Socio-economic utility and chemical potential

in Europhysics Letters (2011), 93(3), 38002-6

In statistical physics, the conservation of particle number results in the equalization of the chemical potential throughout a system at equilibrium. In contrast, the homogeneity of utility in socio ... [more ▼]

In statistical physics, the conservation of particle number results in the equalization of the chemical potential throughout a system at equilibrium. In contrast, the homogeneity of utility in socio-economic models is usually thought to rely on the competition between individuals, leading to Nash equilibrium. We show that both views can be reconciled by introducing a notion of chemical potential in a wide class of socio-economic models, and by relating it in a direct way to the equilibrium value of the utility. This approach also allows the dependence of utility across the system to be determined when agents take decisions in a probabilistic way. Numerical simulations of a urban economic model also suggest that our result is valid beyond the initially considered class of solvable models. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011 [less ▲]

An agent-based model of residential patterns and social structure in urban areas.

in Cybergeo: Revue Européenne de Géographie (2010)

The standard Urban Economics model (Alonso, Muth, Mills) describes analytically an equilibrium of household location in urban areas. We build an agent-based model able to reach this equilibrium in a ... [more ▼]

The standard Urban Economics model (Alonso, Muth, Mills) describes analytically an equilibrium of household location in urban areas. We build an agent-based model able to reach this equilibrium in a dynamic way. This allows us to simulate the development of a city by a combination of heterogeneous agents (based on income and preferences for the amenities), transport time cost and amenities locations. We explore the conditions under which non-trivial residential patterns and urban social structure can be obtained. [less ▲]