2019 Volume 75 Issue 2 Pages 109-127
Fujita and Ogawa’s (1982) spatial agglomeration model reveals that polycentric intra-urban configurations are formed as equilibria. Since the model admits multiple equilibria, some of them are unstable and impossible to realize under reasonable dynamics. Therefore, it is theoretically necessary to verify the stability of equilibrium solutions in order to select reasonable equilibria. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such study has been conducted so far. In this study, building on the theories of potential game and stochastic stability, we specify globally stable equilibria of the model in a linear city as well as a circular city. We demonstrate the following three characteristics of the model: 1) polycentric spatial patterns emerge as globally stable equilibrium; 2) the number of business areas in globally stable equilibria monotonically decreases with the decrease in transportation cost parameter; 3) both the linear city and the circular city share the above two characteristics in common.
