On the emergence of cities

This paper contains a description of a general class of city formation mode ls. individual economic agents have preferences for locations that depend u pon the population distribution. A location's attractiveness depends upon s ome combination of its population and its average distance to other agents. Economic variables enter indirectly. Taking this broad perspective leads t o a deeper understanding of how cities form as well as of the sensitivity t o initial conditions of their locations and sizes. In addition, this class of models supports scenarios where cities emerge: without any assumptions t hat agents wish to live near or with one another, agents cluster into citie s. (C) 1999 Academic Press.