ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF FIRMS AND SKILLED LABOR*

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between firm location and skilled‐labor location. While existing new economic geography (NEG) models could not explicitly analyze the relationship due to their assumptions, I construct a new NEG‐type model allowing for different location dynamics of firms and skilled labor for this objective. The main results are as follows. First, a relatively large pool of skilled labor attracts firms when trade costs are small, while it might repel firms when trade costs are sufficiently large. Second, assuming that skilled workers are mobile between regions, the model shows that skilled workers agglomerate faster than firms with decreasing trade costs. Third, the model supports the hypothesis that firms follow skilled labor rather than the reverse. These results are consistent to Indian and Chinese experiences, and some “creative‐class” or “skilled‐city” stories.     

SUBSIDIES,ADDITIONALITY AND FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: A COMRIENT ON WREN*

ABSTRACT. This paper comprises a detailed investigation of the properties of the analytical model introduced in Wren (1994) to evaluate the effect of industrial subsidies on firm employment. We deal specifically with the link between additionality and whether the firm is finance constrained, adding a more flexible formulation for the financial constraint than the two given in Wren. We use the model to question Wren's view that additionality will be greatest in financially constrained firms. We argue that financial constraints potentially restrict leverage and therefore in important, relevant circumstances, limit the effectiveness of subsidies.     

REPLY TO SUBSIDIES, ADDITIONALITY AND FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS

ABSTRACT. In Wren (1994) I find that industrial subsidies have significantly greater employment effects in small firms, and interpret this as arising from the poorer access that these firms have to private funds. Holden and Swales (1996) criticize this interpretation, arguing that financial constraints typically limit the effectiveness of subsidies. In this paper I show that their results arise from the particular properties of the homogeneous production function. More generally, I show that the effectiveness of assistance increases with the marginal cost of private funds and is greater in those firms facing financial constraints. As such, differential access to private funds can explain the greater effectiveness of assistance found in small firms.     

COMPETING BY DESIGN, SPECIALIZATION AND CUSTOMIZATION: MANUFACTURING LOCKS IN THE WEST MIDLANDS (UK)

The past thirty years have seen major shifts and improvements in manufacturing productivity, bringing greater output but fewer jobs. As a result, manufacturing is now less visible in "post-industrial" societies. Nevertheless, manufacturing still matters in developed market economies but our understanding of manufacturing has failed to evolve with developments in the management and organization of production processes. This paper explores the lock industry in the West Midlands (UK), a traditional low-tech manufacturing sector. West Midlands lock companies that produced standardized, mass-produced products have experienced intensive competition from low-cost producers. Many of these firms have downsized their operations in the UK. Nevertheless, this is only one response to intensified competition. Lock firms located in the West Midlands are unable to compete on price and have shifted away from the production of mass-produced locks to concentrate on high value-added niche markets. The firms have developed inimitability strategies based around design, expertise, specialization, customization and nearness to market that assist them in maintaining their revenue and profit streams. Niche manufacturers have been far less susceptible and relatively immune to foreign competition and they continue to diversify product ranges by targeting specialist end-users. The emphasis is on producing high-quality locks in small batches that can be produced just-in-time to meet customers' requirements. The continued survival of these lock firms is based upon a strategy that includes the development of product-based competitive advantage combined with locational advantage and supported by efficient, responsive and customer-focused manufacturing processes.     

沉没成本、制度环境与企业出口地理动态

本文使用2002-2011年中国海关出口数据,探究成本视角下企业出口地理动态和作用机制。实证结果表明企业出口活动和邻近企业溢出均对企业在出口市场上的进入和退出存在显著双面性影响：企业出口活动不利于企业进入新市场,但利于企业继续留在国外已有市场中;邻近企业溢出为企业进入新市场创造了有利条件,但加快了企业从已有市场退出。本文还发现在市场化程度较低和政府干预程度较高的地区,企业出口活动和邻近企业溢出发挥的“双面性”影响明显。这意味地方制度环境能影响中国企业出口地理动态,塑造了企业出口的动机和策略。     

IMMIGRATION AND FIRM EXPANSION*

ABSTRACT Research generally focuses on how immigration affects native workers, while the impact of immigration on domestic firms is often overlooked. This paper addresses this important omission by examining whether firms respond to immigration by expanding their production activities within a city in order to utilize the abundant supply of low‐skilled workers. Using data on immigration and the universe of establishments in U.S. cities, the results indicate that firms respond to immigration at the extensive margin by increasing the number of establishments. Not surprisingly, immigration has a more positive impact on the number of establishments that are small in size and in relatively mobile, low‐skill intensive industries. Additional evidence indicates that immigration has little impact on employment within existing establishments, the intensive margin, or on the number of establishments in service industries which may expand simply due to immigrant consumption.     

POLLUTION MOBILITY,PRODUCTIVITY DISPARITY,AND THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POLLUTING AND NONPOLLUTING FIRMS

This paper first develops a model to characterize the equilibrium distribution of polluting and nonpolluting firms and then turns to the larger question of whether the equilibrium distribution is socially optimal. We find that the equilibrium distribution of polluting firms differs from the social optimum when they generate a large amount of stationary pollution and have much higher or lower productivity than clean firms. In these cases, conventional pollution control approaches generally do not bring about an optimal distribution. Consideration of transport costs along with productivity and pollution changes some of the classic results of the new economic geography literature.     

Do industrial districts influence export performance and export intensity? Evidence for Spanish SMEs' internationalization process

This paper seeks to enhance the understanding of the role of the industrial districts in the internationalization process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study focuses essentially upon the following issue: Can the location inside industrial districts influence the export performance and export intensity of the Spanish SMEs? To address this question, this study draws upon a sample of 285 manufacturing firms located in the Valencian community (a Spanish region) surveyed during the period January 2000 to March 2000. It is shown that industrial district location, marketing differentiation, institutional networks, clients' networks, competitors' networks and global orientation of sector and company have a clear influence on firms export performance and export intensity. The results are basically consistent with the limited previous research.     

SPATIAL COMPETITION AND THE JOINT CONSUMPTION OF SERVICES*

In Hotelling location models, an implicit assumption has been made that a customer uses the service provided by the firm, independent of other customers. However, for firms that supply meeting rooms, wedding halls, tennis courts, and golf links it is essential to incorporate the fact that the customer only uses the service in conjunction with other customers. The objective of this paper is to formulate the Hotelling location model n consideration of the interdependence among customers in one-dimensional space, and to characterize the state of equilibrium. In our model, each group of members within a given distance enjoys a fixed amount of service of the firms, under the assumption that the travel cost incurred by each group is defined as the travel cost of the farthest customer in the group.     

FIRM HETEROGENEITY,MULTIPLANT CHOICE,AND AGGLOMERATION

We examine the organization and location choice of heterogeneous firms in a two‐region economy. When some high‐productivity firms engage in multiplant production, a reduction in transport costs causes two changes in a small region: the closure of plants by high‐productivity multiplant firms and the relocation of low‐productivity single‐plant firms to the region. In the presence of high‐productivity multiplant firms, therefore, a decline in transport costs reinforces the spatial sorting of firms by productivity, enlarging the productivity gap between large and small regions. Conversely, reducing investment costs weakens the spatial sorting effects on regional productivity disparities.     

HIGH-TECHNOLOGY JOBS AND WORKER MOBILITY*

ABSTRACT. The premise of this paper is that one can discover much about the location determinants of high-technology industry by examining the location (migration) decision of workers with high-technology occupations. A model of the high-technology worker migration decision is developed that permits estimation of worker response to both personal and area characteristics, the latter chosen to mirror location factors often cited by high-technology firms as important for both the attraction and retention of their specialized work force. Logit estimates of this model between 1975 and 1980 are presented. The paper is concluded with a discussion of policy implications.     

PRICE AND LOCATION CONJECTURES IN MEDIUM- AND LONG-RUN SPATIAL COMPETITION MODELS*

ABSTRACT. This paper examines medium-run and long-run equilibria in unbounded (circular) and bounded (linear) one-dimensional multifirm markets. A price-location adjustment model is outlined that dows simulation of the spatial equilibrium when these firms anticipate reactions from their nearest spatial rivals. Thus, the market equilibrium is derived from the interdependent but atomistic decisions of the competing firms and is not imposed by some outside observer or agency. Ail conjectures are exogenous; the three well-known price conjectures (Greenhut-Ohta, Hotelling-Smithies, and Losch) are highlighted; and the relevant comparative statics are provided.     

FIRM SIZES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: ESTIMATING LONG‐TERM EFFECTS ON U.S. COUNTY GROWTH, 1990–2000

This paper investigates the role of the business size distribution on income and employment growth in U.S. counties from 1990 to 2000. We measure the business size distribution as the share of employees across nine establishment size categories that range from microfirms (one to four employees) to large firms (1,000+ employees) and using three indices similar to a Gini coefficient. Results show that the business size distribution has a significant impact on county‐level growth patterns. Employment shares in small firms increase employment growth, but decrease income growth. One possible conclusion suggests policies emphasizing small firms and entrepreneurship during times of high unemployment.     

FLEXIBLE SPECIALIZATION, UNCERTAINTY, AND THE FIRM: ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES IN THE WOOD REMANUFACTURING INDUSTRY OF THE VANCOUVER METROPOLITAN AREA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

In this paper, we articulate the relationships between strategies of flexible specialization, uncertainty, and the firm in order to emphasize the internal differentiation of flexibly specialized regions. Conceptually, the paper argues that this variability is an implication of uncertainty which has been neglected in the literature. In particular, in response to uncertainty, firms develop different types of flexibility with respect to production, technology, and employment in sometimes novel ways that do not correspond to ideal types. Empirically, the argument is demonstrated through a detailed examination of several case study firms operating in the wood remanufacturing industry of the Vancouver metropolitan area, British Columbia.
Ceffe étude montre comment s'amculent les relations entre les stratégies de spécialisation flexible, les incertitudes du marché et la firme afin de souligner les différenciations à l'intérieur des régions à spécialisation flexible. De façon conceptuelle, on discutera ici du fait que la variabilité découle de l'incertitude du marché, point sur lequel on n'a pas beaucoup écrit. Notamment, pour répondre à l'incertitude, les firmes développent des types différents de flexibilityé portant sur la production, la technologie et la main-d'oeuvre par des moyens quelquefois innovateurs qui ne correspondent pas à des critères idéals. La démonstration est faite, de façon empirique, par un examen détaillé de plusieurs cas de compagnies de I'industrie manufacturière du bois d'oeuvre de la région du Vancouver métropolitain, en Colombie-Britan-nique.
Mots-clés: Spécialisation flexible, incertitudes du marché, industrie manufacturière du bois, stratégic de I'entreprise, Vancouver.     

A NOTE ON MULTIPURPOSE AND MULTISTOP SHOPPING,SALES, AND MARKET AREAS OF FIRMS*

ABSTRACT. The paper characterizes the aggregate demand addressed to firms in a situation such that consumers are allowed to purchase during the same journey several commodities from several firms located in a one-dimensional space. It is a duopoly in which both firms sell the two commodities. The individual demand is assumed to be price-inelastic.     

THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF HIERARCHICAL INTER-URBAN SYSTEMS: EQUILIBRIUM AND OPTIMUM*

In this paper, I model a simple hierarchical inter-urban system in which the location of business firms is considered together with the determination of residential land-use patterns. By supposing a spatial externality between the business firms and all the residents of the region, three spatial structures are obtained: monocentricity, multicentricity, and a separate pattern where cities are spatially split with an agricultural land existing between them. It is also shown that the spatial structures of monocentric and multicentric patterns formed by the market principle tend to be more concentrated than the optimum.     

CAPITALIZATION OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL ATTRIBUTES INTO WAGES AND RENTS: DIFFERENCES ACROSS RESIDENTIAL,COMMERCIAL AND MIXED-USE COMMUNITIES*

ABSTRACT. The extent to which the value of locational attributes is capitalized into wages rather than rents is analyzed in a general equilibrium framework. This paper differs from earlier work by taking into account local and regional attributes and makes distinctions among residential, commercial, and mixed-use communities. The theory implies that in localities with both individuals and firms, wages and rents are simultaneously determined, while in exclusively residential localities the model is recursive. The major theoretical insights are consistent with estimations of the model using data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics.     

OLIGOPOLISTIC COMPETITION AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY*

ABSTRACT This paper studies a general equilibrium model of economic geography in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. This framework is conducive to analytic results. With increasing returns, oligopolistic competition leads to interindustry trade between regions rather than intraindustry trade. The choice of appropriate technology is a channel of concentration of industries.     

上海大都市区物联网产业集聚与空间演化

新兴技术产业的空间集聚与扩散对大都市区的空间结构有直接的影响,厘清新兴技术产业的空间分布和区位选择规律对新兴产业集群培育和大都市区空间结构调整都具有重要的政策意义。本文分析了上海市物联网企业的空间分布和集聚特征,结果发现初创期物联网企业在郊区集聚,随后向郊区其他区域扩散,并呈现出从单极向多极集聚转变的空间演化进程。通过构建负二项回归探究上海物联网企业的区位选择因素,结果表明制度因素和企业集聚效应对企业区位选择有重要影响。在产业发展初创期,企业区位选择受政府管制和市场机制双重影响,其中制度因素发挥了关键作用;而在随后的兴起期,产业集聚效应对新企业的入驻具有强大的吸引力。     

DISPERSION FORMS: AN INTERACTION OF MARKET ACCESS,COMPETITION, AND URBAN COSTS*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes a two‐region model including multiple industries with different transport costs. Two results are derived. First, dispersion occurs for small transport costs, but the specific dispersion patterns depend on the level of urban costs. This results from an interaction of the market‐access effect on consumers, the market‐access effect on firms, the competition effect, and the urban‐cost effect. Second, decreasing transport cost tends to let industries with lower transport costs disperse, although the shares of industries locating in the larger region are not in order of their transport costs. We further provide some empirical data concerning the second result.