Ronald R. Schultz

Metropolitan Inflation in the United States 1961–1978

This paper examines the rate of price inflation in twenty-two U.S. metropolitan areas over the 1961–1978 time period. A Phillips-Lipsey model containing specifications for unemployment, expected inflation, and imported inflation is evaluated for each region. The data are examined cross-sectionally as well as serially and little evidence is found to contradict the hypothesis that the rate of price inflation observed in U.S. metropolitan areas is the national rate. Local unemployment and expectations are generally insignificant explanators. A statistical problem associated with the use of the lagged dependent variable in a cross section regression is also discussed.

Optimum locations for consumers on a theoretical central place landscape

Individual consumers on a theoretical central place landscape expend costs for obtaining goods from places of higher order than their home place. This cost is a function of distance between home and higher order places, and the number of trips made to these places. On a hypothetical landscape with five orders of places, travel costs decrease as the order of the home place increases, with least costs at the fifth order center (zero), and greatest at the first order places. No significant relationship is found between distance from home place to the central fifth order metropolis.