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outweighs any other tradition in spatial economics. Mark Blaug devotes almost half of his review of
spatial economics to von Thünen and his successors and even this does not take account of the influence
of von Thünen-based models in the analysis of the internal structure of urban areas, which I turn to
below. Von Thünen has attracted favorable attention from many modern economists, from Herbert
Giersch to Paul Samuelson.
All of this is in many ways amply justified. The von Thünen model (even if it was Launhardt who really
first got it right) is a beautiful thing. It illustrates in a surprising context many of the key concepts of
neoclassical economics: the idea of equilibrium; the idea that "value" does not inhere in some hidden
essence, but is instead an emergent consequence of a market process (would that Marx had read von
Thünen); the simultaneous determination of goods and factor prices; the ability of markets to achieve
efficient outcomes; and the role of prices, even for nonproduced, "underserving" factors like land, in
providing the incentives that promote efficiency.
The one thing that the von Thünen model does not tell you much about, unfortunately, is the central
issue of spatial economics. Or let me be more precise: if you regard it as essential that you be able to
understand why and how the economy avoids "backyard capitalism," the von Thünen model provides
absolutely no help. It simply assumes the thing you want to understand: the existence of a central urban
market. Indeed, the whole thrust of the model is to understand the forces that spread economic activity
away from that center, the "centrifugal" forces if you will. About the "centripetal'' forces that create
centers, that pull economic activity together, it can and does say nothing.
Why should a model with such a powerful limitation bulk so large in location theory? Why, in
particular, should
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