Masahisa Fujita and The Transformation of Urban Economics

Extract

Masa Fujita is a quiet economist – articulate and funny in person, but never one for dramatic gestures or flashy presentations. His work and influence over the years have built gradually, without at first attracting widespread notice beyond urban economists. But over time he, more than anyone else, has transformed the field.

If there is an overarching theme in Masa's work, it is “escape from von Thiinen.” Let me explain.

The von Thünen model of land use and land rent has, justifiably, exerted a powerful influence on how economists think about location, especially within cities. The basic idea is that of a single urban center, with costly transportation of goods to that center; given varying costs of transportation, this leads to a predictable relationship between land rents, land use, and distance from the center. Once Alonso realized that the same basic framework could be applied to commuting to a city center rather than transporting goods to a central city, we had a ready-made way to think about urban structure – and this way of thinking remains useful to this day.