This paper uses the concept of structural stability for dynamic systems to find out which flow patterns for goods, and hence which location patterns, are structurally stable, that is, qualitatively unaffected by perturbations caused by partial relocations of economic activity. The model used is the Beckmann continuous-space market model, generalized to a production economy and interdependent labour and goods markets. The basic stable flow pattern is quadratic, with one node surrounded by four saddles and one saddle surrounded by four nodes as the basic graph.
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