FUNCTION AND COMPETITION AMONG URBAN CENTERS

ABSTRACT This paper uses a logit model of consumer choice to examine how changes in the spatial behavior of rural consumers will affect the commercial base of smaller urban places. Various socio‐economic changes in a region can be expected to cause a number of behavioral changes, including changes in where people work and shop. The analysis presented in the paper emphasizes the importance of location to the commercial prospects of small trade centers as consumers become more spatially mobile and engage in more multipurpose shopping. Places that are centrally located have the best prospects for ensuring that functions are either maintained or suffer the least decline as a result of competition from higher‐order centers. Remoter locations will be adversely affected by these competitive pressures.