This thesis consists of five chapters, based on four different articles. All of them are devoted to different aspects of spatial heterogeneity and its impact on economic equilibrium in space. The concept of heterogeneous continuous space is discussed in the introductory chapter.The first model "Equilibrium in Continuous Space under Decentralized Production" addresses the issue of the impact of differences across locations in exogeneous productivity on the structure of equilibrium prices, production and trade. The goal is to describe the general equilibrium in a spatially decentralized economy, when production, consumption and markets are distributed in continuous space and transportation costs are essentially linear. It is shown that an autarky equilibrium can exist only if transport costs are high enough. In the general case, the general equilibrium in this model includes some endogeneously determined trade areas, with flows of goods across space, and autarky areas where production and consumption activities take place only at the same point. An analytical solution in explicit functions is obtained; it contains equilibrium prices, labor supply and flows of goods as functions of the spatial variable. The model can be applied to a set of practical questions in regional economics. In particular, it is able to describe persistent price differentials across regions and non-local consequences of road construction and transportation cost shocks for the economy. The differences across locations in population density may have either historical or economic reasons.The second model "Hotelling's Revival" extends a well-known research of H.Hotelling (1929) to the two-dimensional case with spatially heterogeneous demand density, preserving the rest of his classical assumptions. It is shown that the problem of demand discontinuity in the one-dimensional model, which was discovered by d'Aspremont, Gabszewich and Thisse (1979), disappears in this case. This also holds for any bounded distribution of consumers on any compact set on a plane, which can describe real geographical situations. Demand continuity still holds for any transport costs, strictly increasing in distance and not necessarily linear. Although this is sufficient for the existence of Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies, in pure strategies it exists only for some subset of cases. Examples of both existence and non-existence are constructed, and for some family of densities the separation point between the two cases is found.The third model addresses locational choice of heterogeneous consumers, when land is also heterogeneous in quality. It is based on two articles. The first, "Dacha Pricing", is presented in chapter 4 and studies the problem of locational rent in a city-neighbourhood when utility includes both the impact of transport costs and time for transportation. For the case of identical agents the problem is solved explicitly and comparative statics with respect to exogeneous changes in transport cost and speed is studied. For the case of agents who are heterogeneous with respect to their income, a solution is also obtained. The model explains some evidence about dacha pricing in Russia and its dynamics during the transition period. The second article related to this model is "Location and Land Size Choice by Heterogeneous Agents". It generalizes the first one and form a separate chapter 5. A new approach about the general equilibrium allocation of heterogeneous divisible good (like land) among a continuum of heterogeneous consumers is proposed. The model is based on continuity of primitives which allow not only to finding a general equilibrium solution in a class of continuous functions, but also to treat the solution to a continuous problem as the limit of the corresponding sequence of discrete problems. This solves one of Berliant's paradoxes, related to spatial economics. The multiplicity of equilibria is shown to take place.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:33:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daiane Alves Rodrigues.pdf: 1635952 bytes, checksum: 7da3e0106bfa3127f001cdb757d15f7f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-26 / This research analyzed the regional economic performance profile in the central north of Paraná, from 1999 to 2010, under the spatial economy focus. The group of micro regions belonging to this zone has similar features; however it has different dynamics in its productive activities. Despite of this specific zone economic growth, the industry and service sector had great performance in the period, however the agriculture revealed a small growth. The great majority of the micro regions showed a similar profile, taking advantage from the sectors with bigger growth to boost their activities. An analytical research was used as methodology, fundamentally from secondary data collected from IBGE and IPARDES. As first step it was researched the VAB from the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to verify the micro regions performance from 1999 to 2010 calculating the geometric growth rate and it was detected that great section of the micro regions grew specially in industry and services sections, however some of them such as: Astorga, Apucarana, Faxinal and Ivaiporã could get greatest positive results in the period and in all sectors. In the second step it was necessary to understand the structural-differential behavior of the micro regions by the method shift-share, which reflected bigger dynamism again in the industry and services sections. Based specially in the differential behavior, the same micro regions were in more relevant position, they had in the location factor a competitive advantage, which contributed to spotlight those micro regions, as it is explained by the spatial economy. The micro regions with higher economic growth have as similarity the proximity to big agglomerations (in this case Londrina and Maringá) that radiate attractions effects to these localities, enhanced by the Poles Theory (Perroux) and the Central Places theory (Christaller and Losch) as well as Alfred Marshall helps to explain the fact that the industries are located near the production factors, reducing transport expenses, developing an urbanization economy and providing after that the trading and the services growth. / Esta pesquisa analisou o desempenho econômico da mesorregião do Norte Central Paranaense no período de 1999 á 2010, sob o enfoque da economia espacial. O conjunto das microrregiões pertencentes à está mesorregião possui características similares, porém apresentaram dinâmicas diferentes em suas atividades produtivas. A despeito do crescimento econômico na mesorregião em questão, o setor de indústria e serviços apresentaram grande desempenho no período, já a agropecuária revelou um crescimento de pouca expressão. A maioria das microrregiões apresentaram um perfil semelhante, aproveitando-se dos setores com maior crescimento para dinamizar suas atividades. Utilizou-se como metodologia uma pesquisa analítica a partir, fundamentalmente, de dados secundários coletados do IBGE e IPARDES. Como primeiro passo levantou-se o VAB dos setores primário, secundário e terciário para verificar o desempenho das microrregiões de 1999 á 2010 calculando a taxa de crescimento geométrico e observou-se que grande parte das microrregiões cresceram especialmente no setor da indústria e serviços, porém algumas delas como: Astorga, Apucarana, Faxinal e Ivaiporã conseguiram obter resultados positivos mais expressivos no período em todos os setores. No segundo passo buscou-se perceber o comportamento estrutural-diferencial das microrregiões pelo método shift-share, que refletiram maior dinamismo novamente em setores da indústria e serviços. Com base principalmente no componente diferencial, as mesmas microrregiões acima se colocaram com posição mais relevante, tendo no fator localização uma vantagem competitiva que contribuiu para o destaque destas microrregiões, como explica a economia espacial. As microrregiões com crescimento econômico de maior representatividade tem como similaridade a proximidade à grandes aglomerações (no caso Londrina e Maringá) que irradiam efeitos de atração para estas localidades, reforçada pela teoria dos polos de Perroux e da teoria dos lugares centrais de Christaller e Losch, assim como Alfred Marshall ajuda a explicar o fato das indústrias se localizarem próximas aos fatores de produção, reduzindo custos de transportes, desenvolvendo uma economia de urbanização e propiciando posteriormente o crescimento do comércio e serviços.