an ethnic group without a nation-state, are divided between four adjacent countries
in the region: Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. Iraq’s Shiite community, concentrated
in the southern reaches of the country, shares strong religious affinities with neigh-
boring Iran. Biden’s proposal was not accepted by either the American or Iraqi
governments, however, and critics of the plan pointed out that the call for an
autonomous Kurdish territory might possiblyleadtothedestabilizationand
balkanization of some of Iraq’s neighbors. Once initiated, balkanization is a
process that has historically often gathered more momentum than expected and
proven difficult to control or direct.
Bid-Rent Theory
A theory of land valuation based on the geographic distance from an established
point of maximum value represented by the Central Business District, or CBD.
The theory is generally applied to urban environments but is adapted from thevon
Thunen modelof rural land valuation. The urban geographer credited with devel-
oping bid-rent theory is William Alonso. The theory proposes an urban model
in which a city occupies an unbroken plain, with no topographical barriers.
The quality, cost, and availability of transport throughout the urban area are
uniform, and at the heart of the urban space is a CBD that provides the maximum
economic opportunity in the city and contains all the jobs in the urban area. It also
assumes an atmosphere of perfect economic competition, where no one party has
an advantage over others. Within this scenario, the following circumstances of land
valuation and land use will occur. First, the land lying within the CBD and immedi-
ately adjacent to it will have the highest value, or bid rent. This is because land in the
CBD represents access to the largest pool of consumers for businesses, and the
shortest distance to work for residential users. Demand therefore for land within
and close to the CBD will be quite high, and this will be reflected in correspondingly
greater land costs. Manufacturing and retail businesses will be more willing to pay
these higher costs for location closer to the CBD than residential users, who gain
economic advantage only via lower transportation costs by locating in the CBD.
The result is a series of zones or rings surrounding the CBD in which land
values decline with distance from the CBD. Each zone is marked by a cluster of
similar users whose specific distance from the CBD is determined by willingness
to pay higher land rents. The innermost zone will be dominated by high-volume,
high-value retailers who are willing to pay the maximum in land costs, due to the
higher number of consumers and greater volume of trade made possible by the
central-most location. The outermost ring will be occupied mostly by residential
Bid-Rent Theory 27