1018 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 2§

tions and must be obtained at local nodes; 2) a large fraction
of such information is visible to local people; and 3) the visibility
 to non-local people of such information on a local node
rapidly falls off with distance from that node? If so, can we
conclude that the greater the distance a decision-making point
s from a given local node, the greater the volume of information
 on that node and its tributary area which must be formally
collected and put in explicit form, ceteris paribus? Can we
hypothesize that for decisions on a representative concrete issue
or set of concrete issues cost component a) is some monotonically
 increasing function of the degree of spatial centralization
as suggested by the curve of Figure 4? (9).

Dollars

Cost
Component
yey

Jagree

————
. . . ! 0 0
vabal Centrabization

Frc

Cost component b): When no slack facilities, labor and
other resources exist, and when inputs are costed in full at
prevailing rents and wage rates, do major scale economies
obtain in processing and beneficiating information? For processing
 a given volume of information associated with decisions
on a concrete issue or set of concrete issues, can we hypothesize
that cost component b) is some monotonically decreasing func-(5)

 In this function, should allowance be made for the likelihood that
important information pertaining to any f‘-order node and its tributary
area may be more visible to a person at the f*-order node than to a person
at an (f+ 1)" or higher order node?
Note that the functions underlying the curve of Figure 4 and the curves
of subsequent figures are taken to be continuous. In practice, they are
likely to involve steps and other discontinuities. The argument. however
remains unaffected

12] Isard - pag. 16