Numerical solution of urban residential land-use models

Many recent papers have made drastic simplifications in urban residential land-use models, presumably for analytic tractability. In this one, numerical solutions to models embodying varying assumptions of substantive importance are obtained. These solutions are compared with estimated characteristics of 1950 residential population density functions. The comparisons suggest that a CES production function for housing with an elasticity of substitution of land for structures of 0.75 agrees more closely with observed 1950 characteristics than does the Cobb-Douglas function so commonly used for analytic simplicity. Assuming a constant marginal transport cost for commuters at all distances from the Central Business District (CBD), however, yields results agreeing somewhat better with 1950 characteristics used for comparison than does the more complicated model embodying congestion in commuter transport.