This paper attempts to provide a strict justification for introducing explanatory variables in urban residential location models. Its authors propose their approach as a unified microeconomic framework to link travel and location decisions, within the vast family of transport-land use models, and are applying it to location models for Santiago, Chile. Their main arguments are about: (1) direct utility; (2) the role of time; (3) zonal characteristics; (4) goods; (5) leisure and work; (6) travel time; and (7) travel cost. Space and time are introduced into a microeconomic mathematical model of consumer behaviour, whose variables and constraints the authors carefully choose and attempt to justify. Optimality conditions are obtained and analysed, to derive models of location decision. In this optimisation, each individual implicitly assigns weights to different elements, that can be interpreted as benefits and costs, and his time assignment depends on location, which is treated discretely. Activities are regarded as the basic source of utility, and goods are viewed as a means to that end; activities can be performed only in zones with given characteristics.
Abstract