The monocentric model and after

Abstract

Von Thünen’s monocentric model is considered as one of the foundations of spatial economics. Most of its assumptions have been transfered from agricultural to urban space by New Urban Economics. This transposition gave new impetus both to the monocentric model and urban economics. Yet the urban monocentric model, because of its strong economic and spatial assumptions, fails to explain the formation of cities. The economics agglomeration, and more generally New Economic Geography, propose to solve this problem by considering endogenous formation of spatial concentrations, i. e. by changing radically the approach of space. We attempt to identify the lines of continuity and the main changes from von Thünen to the contemporary urban microeconomics, and to understand in what way continuity is an obstacle to innovation, and how change has made it possible to renew urban economics