The paper describes the formation of a rural-urban network in which urban areas decide to form links with other urban as well as rural regions. Furthermore, we illustrate how the presence of network can induce agglomeration . Urban areas are mainly production centers of manufacturing goods, and the rural regions that of agriculture. Both regions need to form a network to trade with one another. Network formation occurs in the presence of transportation and network formation costs. The equilibrium rural-urban network is formed when regions attempt to minimize transportation cost as well as the total cost of forming links in a network. The paper illustrates how network structure itself can create agglomeration apart from the processes described in the literature. Manufacturing firms locate to a single area to create a hub that has direct links to rural regions and rural-urban trade proceeds with minimum transportation costs and a minimum number of links.

本文描述了城乡网络的形成，其中城市地区决定与其他城市地区以及农村地区形成联系。此外，我们说明了网络的存在如何引起聚集。城市地区主要是制造业的生产中心，而农村地区则是农业的生产中心。两个地区都需要形成一个网络以相互交易。网络的形成是在存在运输和网络形成成本的情况下发生的。当区域试图最小化运输成本以及在网络中形成链接的总成本时，便形成了城乡均衡网络。本文说明了网络结构本身如何能够形成集结，而文献中所描述的过程除外。