Bifurcation Mechanism at a Sustain Point of a Long Narrow Economy

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate population agglomeration in a long narrow economy, in which an odd number of places are evenly distributed over a line segment. The bifurcation analysis of this economy elucidates the mechanism of the emergence of twin cities around the central city. The validity and usefulness of this analysis are confirmed using several well-known economic geography models that display various kinds of bifurcation behaviors. By this analysis, we investigate the historical change in the population distribution in a chain of cities on Japan’s Main Island.