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Takayama Lab
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A lab that uses economic theory to explain how people and firms come to concentrate in cities.
AboutAbout the lab
Explaining why people and firms gather in cities through economic theory.
The Takayama Lab studies, from the standpoint of economic theory, the phenomenon of economic activity agglomerating in space.
It explores why people and firms concentrate in cities, and where and to what extent this occurs, through the regularities that cities follow.
The lab builds policy evaluation methods that incorporate these mechanisms, making it possible to predict the long-term effects of infrastructure development and urban and regional policy.
It also covers the links between transportation and cities, such as how measures against traffic congestion change a city's spatial structure.
Key terms
- Spatial agglomeration
- The phenomenon in which economic activity by people and firms clusters in particular places
- Rank-size rule
- An empirical regularity that, when the cities of a country or region are ranked by population, the product of population and rank is roughly constant
- Infrastructure development
- Building and improving the facilities that support daily life and the economy, such as roads, railways, and water and sewer systems
NewsLab news
Several students won the Outstanding Poster Award at the Civil Engineering Planning Research Conference
As a result of joint research, municipality-level input-output tables were released
ResearchResearch themes
The lab advances economic theory that can explain the spatial agglomeration of economic activity and develops new policy evaluation methods based on that theory. While deepening understanding of how population concentrates in large cities, it builds the theoretical foundation for grasping the long-term effects of infrastructure development and urban and regional policy.
*Illustrative imageRegularities that cities follow
The lab uses the latest economic theory to investigate why human activity concentrates in cities. It aims to clarify the mechanisms behind regularities that continue to hold even as society changes, such as the rank-size rule, in which the product of a city's population and its rank is constant.
*Illustrative imagePolicy evaluation that accounts for agglomeration
The lab develops evaluation methods for grasping the long-term, wide-area economic effects of public works. To incorporate the spatial agglomeration of economic activity, which earlier methods have not handled, it works together with researchers in economics and applied mathematics.
*Illustrative imageCongestion measures and urban structure
Measures against traffic congestion change where offices and housing are located and, in the long run, a city's spatial structure. The lab studies economic models that account for the interaction between the two, so that the effects of measures such as peak-load pricing and staggered commuting hours can be evaluated.
MembersFaculty
The Takayama Lab consists of faculty members, researchers, secretaries, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorYuki TakayamaPublications ↗
- Project Associate ProfessorWataru NakanishiPublications ↗
- Project Assistant ProfessorTakara SakaiPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “City Lights of Asia and Middle East 2016” NASA Earth Observatory / Public domain (cropped)
- Regularities that cities follow: “DZ6 2952 Aerial view of residential and low-rise commercial buildings in Nong Pla Lai Pattaya - pastel-colored apartments narrow streets and a patchwork of rooftops under a clear sky” PattayaPatrol / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Policy evaluation that accounts for agglomeration: “Highway interchange at night ( )” aotaro from Yokohama, Japan / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Congestion measures and urban structure: “Pacific Highway traffic Springwood L1020777” John Robert McPherson / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (小谷研究室): “Tsunami evacuation route sign on the road, Kamakura, 2016” DimiTalen / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (瀬尾研究室): “Lightrails, A4 motorway in Katowice, Poland, near the exit from Mikołowska Street, 2024” Krzysztof Popławski / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (宮本研究室): “Tokyo L7 lrg” Image courtesy Ron Beck, USGS Eros Data Center Satellite Systems Branch / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (松﨑研究室): “022srUSGSCyprusVia” H.G. Wilshire, U.S. Geological Survey / Public domain (cropped)
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