The Globe and the Circle : Geometry and Economic Geography as Tribute to Thales and Nash

Basu, Kaushik

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: electoral democracy;    Nash equilibrium;    economic geography;    spatial economics;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7819
RP-ID  :  WPS7819

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The geometry of the line and the circlehas been used in economics for a long time to understandlocation choice and political positioning in democraticpolity. This paper draws on some elementary ideas fromgeometry and game theory to extend some of the analysis tobeyond lines and circles, to the globe or the sphere. In thespirit of recreational geometry, the paper is focused ondemonstrating some abstract results concerning Nashequilibria on the globe. It is hoped that this will help usunderstand better the robustness of median voter theoremsand why stores position themselves the way they do.