Spatial Structure of a Metropolitan Area with an Agricultural Hinterland

A dual-economy metropolitan model is evolved by incorporating both urban and rural sectors to explain the real growth factors of the urban area. The competitive relations between urban and agricultural sectors in both labor and land markets are modeled. Such a dual-economy urban model is also indispensable for evaluating the micro effects of industrial policies (e.g., the policy for liberalization of agricultural products) on the urban spatial structure. Comparative static analysis is performed to evaluate the effects of lowered transport cost, heightened production efficiency, lowered world price of agricultural product, and increased metropolitan population