Gateway Cities: The Metropolitan Sources of US Producer Service Exports

Abstract

The US's exports of producer services increased threefold in the 1980s. Those exports plus the repatriation of income from foreign affiliates of US producer service firms now equal US agricultural exports. This paper documents the growth and composition of those producer service exports and then attempts to identify their metropolitan sources. Four metropolitan areas, and particularly their central cities, stand out as having both high concentrations and specialisations in producer service industries and as being the location of the head offices of the largest producer service firms. Ordinary least-squares equations are presented for one of the cities, New York, which links the city's producer services sector to US exports of producer services. For the total private gross city product of New York City, the elasticity with respect to US exports of producer services ranges from +0.19 to +0.25.

The Growing Localness of the Global City

“…Frost and Spence (1993) generally confirm Sassen's view of London in the 1980s.l Similarly, Drennan (1992) finds strong evidence that in the United States the four major producer service cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) are intimately involved with the growth of international service exports. He even estimates an elasticity of New York's private gross city product with respect to U.S. exports of producer services.…”

Subservient Suburbia: The Reliance of Large Suburban Companies on Central City Firms for Financial and Professional Services

“…The first section examines service linkages for central city, suburban, and satellite city companies. It partitions these companies-into two groups: those located in the nation's most important corporate centers-the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco CMSAs (Stanback 1985;Drennan 1992)-and all other companies. The second section analyzes the service linkages of suburban and satellite city companies to see how they vary with company size as measured by sales volume.…”

Breaking the Rules: Miami in the Urban Hierarchy

“…Cohen's study aimed explicitly at identifying cities that are emerging as international instead of national centers, but Miami never entered the discussion. Drennan (1992) designated New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco as the main gateway cities of the United States. Once again, Miami was not even discussed.…”