An investigation of the relationship between economic development and urban primacy in 95 developing countries is carried out through a series of procedures designed to flow from cross-sectional techniques to longitudinal statistical tests. Economic development is here defined as a country's growth of gross national product (GNP) per capita to allow for comparisons with previous development studies. Urban primacy, measured by an index of urban population concentration, is an indicator of a country's level of polarized urbanization, which is representative of national development inequities. / Previous study findings of a negative relationship between a country's economic development and its degree of urban primacy are questioned. The chief policy implication of these earlier findings is the notion that the continued growth of a developing country's economy will eventually reduce its level of urban primacy, thereby diminishing the problems associated with over-populated cities while providing increased equity in national development by dispersing investments down the urban hierarchy. This notion is consistent with neoclassical economic theories of "trickle-down" processes in the long run, and often results in the formulation of policies designed to focus on economic growth in the short run. The emphasis has therefore been on economic efficiency now and social equity later. / This study finds that the relationship between economic development and urban primacy in developing countries is not negative. The implication is that policy intervention, rather than patience, is necessary to combat urban primacy and to provide for equitable national development. The need for national spatial planning in developing countries is reasserted as an appropriate means of balancing equity and efficiency in development planning. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-08, Section: A, page: 2897. / Major Professor: Michael Micklin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Existing models for finding the optimal location for medical facilities are in some ways theoretically insupportable. Four major shortcomings can be identified: (a) dependence on the nearest-center allocation rule, (b) disregard of some qualitative factors of facility, (c) inadequate consideration of the notion of equity and efficiency, and (d) exclusion of the benefit of service providers as a component of social benefit. / This research was designed to formulate a location-allocation model that can remedy several critical weaknesses of the existing models. The equity-efficiency trade-off model, a model constructed through this research, achieves this goal by introducing three innovations: (a) inclusion of producers' surplus in addition to consumers' surplus as a component of the efficiency measure, (b) using a production-constrained model instead of an attraction-constrained one, and (c) synthesizing efforts scattered over diverse fields. / The model was tested for three service categories (gynecology, orthopedics, and surgery), using the Chongju Metropolitan Area of Korea as the application region. Comparison of the existing distribution of resources with the predicted location pattern produced by the model shows that there is a marked discrepancy between the two configurations. / In addition to the testing of the model, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the effects of parameter variation on the model outputs. The analysis shows that the outputs of the model are significantly sensitive to the variance of model parameters, a finding that justifies the use of point estimates of the parameters. / Optimization (nonlinear programming) techniques were employed to operationalize the model for the Chongju region. The production-constrained gravity model was operationalized by unconstrained optimization and the solution of the trade-off model was accomplished through the Monte-Carlo integer and constrained optimization techniques. The chi-square test was used in performing the sensitivity analysis. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4299. / Major Professor: James E. Frank. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-09, Section: A, page: 5758. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-06, Section: A, page: 4080. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1974.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-05, Section: A, page: 3102. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-05, Section: A, page: 3101. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-11, Section: A, page: 6987. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-08, Section: A, page: 5597. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-02, Section: A, page: 1118. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-04, Section: A, page: 2376. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.