A city transformed: manufacturing districts and suburban growth in Montreal, 1850–1929

This paper examines the development of Montreal's industrial geography between 1850 and 1929. It is argued that a decisive feature of the evolution of the city's industrial and social landscape was the emergence of industrial districts on the moving urban frontier. The formation of new suburban districts and the reorganization of existing industrial districts were part of a developing urban spatial division of manufacturing. Three critical features underlay the restructuring of Montreal's industrial geography after 1850. Waves of industrial expansion and the development of a range of production trajectories altered the parameters of location within the city. Working-class suburbanization provided the requisite labour force for firms locating on the periphery. Local political and economic alliances created the physical, ideological and legal structures for suburban industrial growth and the rearrangement of the urban fabric.     

京津冀区域制造业分工与转移

本文基于2001年至2009年京津冀区域182个区县制造业29个行业的数据,测算了京津冀区域制造业分工与转移的基本特征,并利用面板计量模型,对两者的关系进行了实证检验。研究得出:(1)京津冀区域制造业的发展呈现明显的差异化特征,三地制造业梯度分工格局正在逐步形成;(2)京津冀区域制造业在区域内部的转移主要从京津走廊向河北东部沿海的唐山、秦皇岛以及河北腹地的冀中南地区转移;(3)京津冀区域制造业的转移主要受到扩散效应的影响,在区县之间由分工的高梯度地区向低梯度地区转移。从分行业来看,技术密集型制造业转移受分工影响程度最大,其次是资本密集型制造业,劳动密集型制造业转移受分工影响最小。     

Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurship capital: evidence from Italian industrial districts

The purpose of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the presence of Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurship in industrial districts compared to other Italian local economies. Statistical data are used to uncover where Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurs localize their businesses and to what extent this localization is an innovation within the geographical pattern of industrial districts. Data on Chinese manufacturing micro-enterprises (i.e. with less than 10 persons employed) started up in years 2005–2007 and 2008–2010 are cross-tabulated by industrial districts and other local economies to investigate their change over time. The empirical findings show a dominance of industrial districts: those located in Tuscany are on top and Prato district ranks first.     

Industrial Districts,Innovation and I-district Effect: Territory or Industrial Specialization?

The I-district effect hypothesis establishes the existence of highly intense innovation in Marshallian industrial districts due to the presence of external localization economies. However, industrial districts are characterized by specific manufacturing specializations in such a way that this effect could be due to these dominant specializations. The objective of this research is to test whether the effect is explained by the conditions of the territory or by the industrial specialization and to provide additional evidence of the existence and causes of the highly intense innovation in industrial districts (I-district effect). The estimates for Spain of a fixed-effects model interacting territory and industry suggest that the high innovative performance of industrial districts is maintained across sectors, whereas the industrial specialization behaves differently depending on the type of the local production system in which it is placed. The I-district effect is related to the conditions of the territory more than to the industrial specialization. The territory is a key variable in explaining the processes of innovation and should be considered a basic dimension in the design of innovation and industrial policies.     

Regional Specialization and Industrial Concentration Patterns in the Turkish Manufacturing Industry: An Assessment for the 1980–2000 Period1

Previous studies on geographical distribution of economic activity in Turkey demonstrate that firms are localized in major metropolitan areas as well as a set of emerging regions. The aim of the paper is to complement the findings of the studies on regional and industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry by exploring whether regional specialization and industrial concentration patterns changed during the 1980–2000 period. The paper further aims to explore the driving forces of industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry, particularly during Turkey's economic integration process that started with trade liberalization after 1980 and further developed with the Customs Union in 1996. Regional specialization and industrial concentration are measured by GINI indices Turkey's NUTS-2 regions at the four-digit level for the years between 1980 and 2000. To investigate which variables determine industry concentration, systematic relation between the characteristics of the industry and industrial concentration is tested. Following the method proposed by Paluzie, Pons and Tirado, a panel regression equation is estimated, where the dependent variable is the Gini concentration index and the independent variables are the variables that represent the characteristics of the sectors that follow the predictions of classical trade theory, new trade theory and new economic geography. The major finding of the study is that during 1980–2000, Turkey's regions became more specialized and industry became more concentrated. Increases in the average values of regional specialization and industrial concentration support the prediction developed by Krugman hypothesis that regions become more specialized and industries become more concentrated with economic integration. In exploring the driving forces of industrial concentration, the findings demonstrate that firms tend to cluster in regions where there are economies of scale.     

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 EFFECTS OF TRADE POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM BRAZIL*

ABSTRACT Does trade policy shape a country's internal economic geography? Empirical evidence on the spatial effects of trade policy in developing countries is limited. This paper contributes to this literature by looking at the experience of Brazil over the 1990s. In particular, an econometric analysis of the determinants of industrial location using data on regional manufacturing employment as well as data on several region and industry characteristics over the period 1990–1998 is performed. Estimation results suggest that trade openness favored location in states closer to the largest neighbor trading partner and that this effect increased through the end of the 1990s.     

关中城市群产业集聚的空间演变及效应分析——以制造业为例

产业集聚与城市群作用关系是经济地理学的重要命题。本文以关中城市群制造业产业为例,采用EG指数和区位熵法,定量分析制造业产业的集聚水平、空间演变及其效应。研究表明:关中城市群制造业空间集聚水平较高,其中资源密集型产业集聚程度最高,劳动密集型产业集聚水平在降低,资金技术密集型产业虽较低但呈上升趋势;关中城市群从中心城市到外围区域依次形成了资金技术密集型制造业集聚区、劳动密集型制造业集聚区和资源密集型制造业集聚区,呈现出产业空间集聚与城市群规模等级分异相一致的空间效应。     

南京大学经济地理学发展历程与展望

南京大学是我国地理学研究的重要阵地,在经济地理学领域更是有着深远的影响。本文基于对地理学刊物上发表论文的统计,对南京大学经济地理学发展的历程进行了系统的研究。南京大学经济地理学发展主要分为快速发展期、波动停滞期、复苏繁荣期、蓬勃发展期等四个阶段。在研究内容上,主要涉及区域经济与区域发展、交通地理学、空间结构与空间布局、产业集群与新产业区、企业与区域增长、低碳经济与可持续发展、全球化的经济活动、技术进步与信息化、制度经济地理学等9个主要领域。这9大领域在国内学界有着重要的影响。最后,展望南京大学经济地理学学科发展,提出新经济地理学、制度转向/文化转向、服务国家需求是未来研究的三大主要方向。     

Areas of large enterprise and industrial districts in the development of post-war Italy: A preliminary survey

Our aim in this article is to lay some statistical and theoretical foundations for an understanding of Italian post-war economic growth, by devoting special attention to what has happened in the hundred different “Italies” that go to make up the mosaic of this country. We have concentrated our analysis on comparing “areas of large enterprise” with “industrial districts” through a distinction between district provinces (IDPs), large enterprise provinces (LEPs) and other provinces (OPs). We investigate manufacturing industry by means of in depth analyses of trends in employment and value added, as well as through breakdowns of export flows and income and prosperity levels. Since the end of World War II it appears that Italian economic growth has largely been formed by the constant, massive flow of exports of personal and household goods and light mechanically-engineered products, that a sizeable flow of exports is attributable to growth in the industrial districts, and that although the income gap between the different parts of the country has not been eliminated, growth by the industrial districts and the policy of industrialization in Southern Italy have together engineered a major territorial dispersion of both light and heavy industry. However, heavy industry and high-tech large Italian companies have found increasing difficulties and even lost many of the positions they once held. Our survey indicates that a policy for industrial development in Italy must take account of the weakness of the heavy industry sector along with the features and requirements of industrial districts.     

广东省制造业空间格局演化及其影响因素研究

本文基于二位数制造业数据,探究了2000-2014 年广东省制造业空间格局的演化及影响因素。研究表明,广东省制造业以2005 年为拐点,总体呈现先集聚后分散的特征,但行业差异明显。技术密集型产业在珠三角地区保持高集聚的趋势,资本密集型及劳动密集型产业则以不同的扩散速度趋于分散。空间计量回归结果表明,劳动力成本上升及运输成本下降并非广东制造业空间格局演化的主要原因,市场潜力及产业内联系所带来的正外部性抵消了土地等成本提升所带来的负效应。而且,各种影响因素在不同行业的作用不同：市场潜力显著影响劳动密集型产业,资本密集型产业的空间集聚受政府行为影响较大,产业联系则促进技术密集型产业的集聚。     

Italian Industrial Districts on the Move: Where Are They Going?

Since the second half of the 1990s the Italian economy has experienced a significant slowdown in the rate of economic growth. The “dwarfism” of its manufacturing firms, their specialization in traditional sectors and their organization in industrial districts have been identified by many scholars as major structural weaknesses in the Italian industrial system. Nevertheless, there is a vast and flourishing empirical literature showing that many industrial districts are actually changing in terms of sector specialization, international and innovation strategies and emergence of new forms of enterprise organization. In this paper, we provide a critical survey of the new and different patterns of industrial organization emerging in industrial districts.     

«Nature's workshop» industry and urban expansion in Southern California, 1900–1950

Scholars and pundits have cast Los Angeles as a prototype for the twentieth century North American metropolis. Most accounts focus primarily, if not exclusively, on residential development and rely on stock suburban theses for their interpretation. Regional expansion has been presented as a new landscape order where precise location is a secondary concern, development proceeds without planning, and the result is a homogeneous sprawl. Studies of manufacturing and industrial location in southern California often share these conventions. An historical investigation reveals that industry and industrial location have been key determinants of urban form, and that industrial, commercial, and residential development have been co-ordinated, complementary, and highly planned. These coincident enterprises recast the region during the first half of the twentieth century. There were three interrelated but qualitatively distinct types of industrial zones in Los Angeles during this period: a mixed-use, home-market district adjacent to the central business district; an industry-only, mass-production, branch-plant zone in Vernon and the eastside; and a series of oil, film, and aircraft satellites on the urban periphery. This finding challenges the received wisdom regarding industrial geography, a progressive narrative of technological innovation and production regimes that chronicle ascension, transformation, and succession.     

Basic Problems of Industrial Location in the CEMA Countries of Eastern Europe

Four aspects of industrial location are discussed: reconstruction and expansion of old industrial districts; development of new industrial areas and centers based on newly discovered raw-material and energy resources; industrialization of predominantly agricultural regions to absorb idle manpower, and the location of industry in frontier zones, which is regarded as a new type of industrial location in the socialist system.     

The End of Third Italy As We Knew It?

Italian industrial districts of “Third Italy” stand as landmarks and standard points of reference in Anglophone economic geography and planning studies. A whole series of analytical and policy‐oriented concepts have been born, inspired in part or totally from Third Italy, summarized in what is known as “New Regionalism”. There are, however, many partial truths and important missing issues in the discourse on Italian industrial districts and some important post‐2000 developments seem to contradict the dominant mythology around them. Among these developments mergers and acquisitions, de‐localization and the work on non‐EU immigrants seem to mark a new phase in their history, questioning the celebrated characteristics of the past.     

Externalities,Learning and Governance: New Perspectives on Local Economic Development

In spite of growing mobility of production and production factors, economic development is increasingly localized in economic agglomerations. This article reviews three partially overlapping perspectives on local economic development, which derive from three factors intensifying the localized nature of economic development: externalities, learning and governance. Externalities play a central role in the new geographical economics of Krugman and in new economic geography of clusters and industrial districts. The dynamics of local economic development are increasingly associated with evolutionary economic thinking in general and with collective learning in particular. Inter‐firm and extra‐firm organization has experienced considerable innovation in the last few decades. New institutional devices are based on the notions of commodity chain, cluster and milieu. These innovations introduce new issues of economic governance both at the level of industry and of territory.     

Globalization,Recession and the Internationalization of Industrial Districts: Experiences from the Italian Gold Jewellery Industry

Abstract

Globalization and the recent recession crisis are significantly challenging Italian industrial districts (IDs), leading to deep transformations in their internationalization, innovation and organization strategies. With our empirical focus on a single industry (gold jewellery) and a specific country (Italy) and through the theoretical lenses of the global value chain (GVC) approach, the evidence in this article sheds light on the differences in how three IDs within Italy's gold jewellery sector (Valenza Po, Arezzo and Vicenza) compete in the global arena. Our comparative analysis reveals striking differences among these districts with regard to their upstream and downstream internationalization strategies in response to two industry shocks: increasing global competition in the early 2000s and the world economic recession of 2008–2009. Our explanation for the varied gold jewellery district responses to these two global crises involves both internal and external factors: (1) structural differences between the three IDs; (2) distinct business strategies; and (3) how these districts are linked to the gold jewellery GVC.     

Differences in Survival Strategies among Footwear Industrial Districts: The Role of International Outsourcing

During the 1990s, a further development of the industrial district model was observed in some developed countries and industrial sectors. Due to the intense process of globalization, footwear district firms have gradually relocated some manufacturing activities through an international extension of their business networks. In this manner, the traditional pattern of integrated shoemaking is being replaced by a global supply chain stretching across different countries and cultures. Even though Spain has always been positioned at the top of the rank of footwear exporters, little attention has been paid to how Spanish footwear districts are handling the global competition and strategies implemented in order to achieve superior efficiency rates. This paper attempts to describe the international outsourcing activities (one of the most expanded strategies) in four footwear industrial districts. To reach our objective, data about imports of components and outward processing trade in provinces of the districts considered are deeply analysed. Special consideration has been paid to differences between provinces and districts. Finally, based on the issues reviewed and results obtained in previous sections, our paper includes conclusions and implications for policy makers and practitioners.     

20世纪经济地理学发展及研究特点

本文从研究区域尺度、企业组织和思维方法三方面梳理了本世纪经济地理学的发展特点。在此基础上,指出经济地理学研究的四个特点:区域-企业综合分析、经济活动全球化研究、新产业区研究和多种思维方式的综合考虑;跨世纪经济地理学要关注人地关系、全球与地方关系、区域发展与需求关系和与区域的关系。     

China's Shoe Manufacturing and the Wenzhou Model: Perspectives on the World's Leading Producer and Exporter of Footwear

A U.S.-based geographer and specialist on China advances his research on industrial districts and regional development by presenting a 2008 study of shoe manufacturing in Wenzhou (a major center in the world's largest footwear producing and exporting country). More specifically, the author examines how the model of economic development pioneered in Wenzhou (the Wenzhou model) has been transformed in an effort to meet the challenges posed by the global economy. He argues that the scaling up of Wenzhou's footwear industry, through the expansion of sales networks and factories across China and abroad, indicates that other adaptable city regions can overcome similar obstacles. The author challenges both the New Regionalism literature focused on local institutions and assets, as well as perspectives that overemphasize the benefits of globalization and global production networks. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O100, O140, O180. 2 figures, 3 tables, 60 references.