APL (Ajiken Power Lunch)

APL (Ajiken Power Lunch) is a lunchtime workshop open to public, including IDE staffs, visiting research fellows, IDEAS students, outside researchers and graduate students. This workshop provides a platform for presentation of any work in progress where we can discuss in either English or Japanese.

Those who would attend a seminar are asked to announce yourself to receptionists on your arrival at the IDE and to obtain APL Organizers' signature on your admission card after the seminar.

May 29, 2017. (Monday) 12：30-14：00

Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization C23 Meeting Room 　

Using Commodity Flow Surveys for the Analysis of Inter-Urban Freight Flows: The French Case

In the recent years the topic of urban logistics has been studied fairly extensively. The works focus, amongst others, on the location of distribution centers or the organization of deliveries. But in most of the studies, each city is analyzed as a whole without taking in account the freight flows with other cities. To try to fill this void, this study analyzes the organization of inter-urban freight flows. It is based on the results of a Shippers’ survey (2004), realized in the context of France, a continental country of Western Europe where transport networks are strongly organized around Paris. It shows that the spatial patterns of freight flows considerably vary depending on the activities considered, leading to different upward and downward movements. The most notably hierarchical flows are those generated by wholesale trade and distribution activities, suggesting a classical central place structure. The spatial organization of manufacturing flows is more complex, and seems to be much more the result of the regional specialization of activities. We comment on the relationships between the location of economic activities and the organization of freight flows. The results of this research could help to put into perspective the expectations of policy makers and planners aiming at develop large scale logistics activities on peripheral areas.

David GUERRERO,
Researcher, University Paris EST, IFSTTAR, SPLOTT (France)
Visiting Professor, Kwansei Gakuin University (Japan)

English