Minoru OSAWA

Welcome! I am an assistant professor at Kyoto Institute of Economic Research (KIER), Kyoto University. I explore how human behavior unfolds across space and time. Looking forward to exchanging thoughts with you.

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• Kyoto, Japan
• Twitter / ResearchGate
• Google Scholar / ORCiD / researchmap
• CV (pdf)

Research

Selected Discussion Papers

• Spatial scale of agglomeration and dispersion: Number, spacing, and the spatial extent of cities (2025)
  (with Takashi Akamatsu, Tomoya Mori, and Yuki Takayama) [paper]
  Previous versions:

  • 2017a (PDF): "Spatial Scale of Agglomeration and Dispersion: Theoretical foundations and empirical implications"
  • 2017b (PDF): "Endogenous agglomeration in a many-region world"
• Origin of power laws and their spatial fractal structure for city-size distributions (2023)
  (with Tomoya Mori, Takashi Akamatsu, and Yuki Takayama) [paper]

Publications

Ordered by my preference. Please see Google Scholar for a chronological list.

• Equilibrium refinement for a model of non-monocentric internal structures of cities: A potential game approach
  Journal of Economic Theory (2020) [paper]
  (with Takashi Akamatsu)
• Harris and Wilson (1978) model revisited: The spatial period-doubling bifurcation in an urban retail model
  Journal of Regional Science (2016) [paper]
  (with Takashi Akamatsu, Yuki Takayama)
• First-best dynamic assignment of commuters with endogenous heterogeneities in a corridor network
  Transportation Research Part B: Methodological (2018) [paper]
  (with Haoran Fu, Takashi Akamatsu)
• Perturbed cusp catastrophe in a population game: Spatial economics with locational asymmetries
  Journal of Regional Science (2022) [paper]
  (with Kiyohiro Ikeda, José Maria Gaspar, Yuki Takayama)
• Breaking and sustaining bifurcations in S_N-invariant equidistant economy
  International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (2021) [paper]
  (with Hiroki Aizawa, Kiyohiro Ikeda, José Maria Gaspar)
• Model-based analysis on social acceptability and feasibility of a focused protection strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic
  Scientific Reports (2021) [paper]
  (with Takashi Akamatsu, Takeshi Nagae, Koki Satsukawa, Takara Sakai, Daiziro Mizutani)
• Time evolution of city distributions in Germany: Group-theoretic spectrum analysis
  Networks and Spatial Economics (2022) [paper]
  (with Kiyohiro Ikeda, Yuki Takayama)
• Spatio-temporal analysis of gasoline shortages in the Tohoku region after the Great East Japan Earthquake
  Journal of JSCE (2013) [paper]
  (with Takashi Akamatsu, Takeshi Nagae, Hiromichi Yamaguchi)

Working Papers

• Understanding regional dynamics (2025) [paper] [slides]
• Equilibrium distortion with dual noise (2025) [paper]
• Most likely retail agglomeration patterns (2025) (with Takashi Akamatsu and Yosuke Kogure)
• Innovation through intra and inter-regional interaction in economic geography (2024) (with José Maria Gaspar)
• Production externalities and dispersion process in a multi-region economy (2021) (with José Maria Gaspar)
• Cities in a world of diminishing transport costs (2021) (with Tomoya Mori)

Education and Work Experiences

• Apr. 2020 - Present: Assistant Professor (tenure-track).
  Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University
• Oct. 2016 - Mar. 2020: Assistant Professor (termed).
  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
  School of Engineering, Tohoku University
• Apr. 2014 - Sep. 2016: Research Fellow (DC1).
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
• Sep. 2016: Ph.D. (Information Sciences).
  Department of Human-Social Information Sciences,
  Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University.
  (Thesis supervisor: Takashi Akamatsu)
• Mar. 2012: Bachelor of Engineering.
  Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture,
  School of Engineering, Tohoku University
• Mar. 2008: 長野県松本深志高等学校 卒業

Misc.

• Born in 1990. He/his/him. Love dogs. Love hiking. Do some drawing & painting.
• You can call me Mino if its easier.
• If you are interested in presenting your work at our Urban Economics Workshop, please feel free to contact me.