ancient cities

474 Lynch, Kevin
incomes—is settl ed in equidistant locations.
Economic decisions are based on rational behavior
and the possibility of free market entry.
Production functions are independent from geographical
location; however, the existence of
economies of scale and agglomeration economies
favor spatial cluster ing. The market area of the
single producer is geographically extended until
the price at market location becomes equal to the
sum of factory price and product-specific linear
transport costs, so that profits disappear—because
factory prices are equal to average pro duction
costs. Most important, for each finished product,
each location on the plane is supplied by exactly
one production location.
Starting from the market area for a single producer
and moving on to nets of markets for producers
of competing products, Lösch describes,
“for the various classes of commodities,” nets of
equilateral “hexagons, close-meshed and widemeshed
ones which, to begin with, we can throw
across our plane at random.” However, considering
the existence of agglomeration economies, the
nets are to be rearranged “in such a way that all
of them have in common at least one center.”
Thus, a central city evolves, as shown in the figure
on the previous page.
Then, the various market nets are rotated
around the central city in such a way that the
highest number of market locations coincide with
each other. Thus, a sectoral pattern of densely and
loosely clustered locations comes into existence: a
Löschian economic area.
Next, moving away from the strict conditions
of spatial homo geneity, the market areas have to
be redetermined for differing con ditions of the
geographic distribution of consumers. Also to be
considered is that production and demand functions
for identical products may differ as a result
of divergent impacts from natural or behavioral
factors or political conditions. Finally, systems of
market nets as derived from these redefined production
and demand functions have to be introduced
for different products, and the various
market nets, again, have to be overlaid to form
economic areas.
Whatever the detailed conditions, Lösch finds
that “the honeycomb is the most advantageous
form of economic areas,” where the advantage
benefits the totality of consumers, whereas for the
single producer the circular market area would be
most opportune.
On April 21, 1971, the first August Lösch Days
were held by the City of Heidenheim, for more
than three decades a series of biannual events.
August Lösch in memoriam, as well as theoretical
and practical problems of spatial structure and
development have been discussed; the August
Lösch prize for out standing publications in regional
science, written in German or—after a change of
the constitution—in English, has been awarded.
Most recently, commemorating the centenary of
Lösch’s birthday in October 2006, the event was
held at the Kiel Institute for World Economics.
In 1982, the first August Lösch Ring of Regional
Science, to be conferred on no more than six living
persons of undisputed international renown in
the field, was offered to Wolfgang F. Stolper.
Further awardees are Leo H. Klaassen (1984),
Tors ten Hägerstrand (1986), Walter Isard (1988),
Kazimierz Dziewonski (1992), Martin J. Beckmann
(1998), and Herbert Giersch (2000).
Rolf Funck
See also Location Theory; Urban Economics; Urban
Geography
Further Readings
Blum, Ulrich, Rolf H. Funck, Jan S. Kowalski, Antoni
Kuklinski, and Werner Rothengatter, eds., with
editorial assistant Guido von Thadden. 2007. Space—
Structure—Economy: A Tribute to August Lösch.
Baden Baden, Germany: Nomos.
Lösch, A. 1938. “The Nature of Economic Regions.”
Southern Economic Journal 5(1):71–78.
———. 1954. The Economics of Location. Translated
by W. H. Woglom and W. F. Stolper. New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press.
Stolper, W. F. 1954. August Lösch in Memoriam
(Introduction). Pp vii–viii in The Economics of
Location, by August Lösch. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Ly N c h, Ke v i N
Kevin Lynch (1918–1984) was a professor of
city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of