The Role of Destination Spatial Spillovers and Technological Intensity in the Location of Manufacturing and Services Firms

Abstract

Focusing on the characteristics of destinations, we seek to identify the relevance of spatial spillovers while driving location choices of manufacturing and services fi rms. With this objective, we apply a spatial conditional logit equation to model empirically the behaviour of 1 092 864 fi rms established in 316 municipalities of the Spanish Mediterranean Arc during the period 1998-2008. Our econometric specifi cation allows us to identify both types of external spatial eff ects, direct or locally bounded, and indirect or associated-neighbourhood spatial eff ects. Further, we propose a broad indicator of spatial spillovers generated by a given destination. Empirical fi ndings show that spatial spillovers generated by destinations have greater impacts on the location decisions of manufacturing companies compared with those of services. When we break down the sample by technological intensity of activities, we observe that spatial spillovers are more willing to aff ect decisions of knowledge-intensive companies relative to those of less knowledge-intensive ones, which stay more locally bounded.

Location determinants of high-tech firms: an intra-urban approach

“…In addition to previous concerns, when analysing the location determinants of new firms it is necessary to take into account, not only the characteristics of the area where firms are located, but also those of neighbouring areas (Arauzo-Carod and Manjón-Antolín 2012), as their characteristics also influence location decisions. These neighbouring site effects have been analysed by, among others, Alamá-Sabater et al (2011) and Artal-Tur et al (2012). All in all, previous empirical evidence suggests that it is important to control for both the direct and indirect effects (LeSage and Pace 2009) arising from nearby sites when analysing the location determinants of firms.…”

Spatial dependence and heterogeneity in the location processes of new high‐tech firms in Nanjing, China

“…It can be learnt from the above discussion that the use of spatial econometric techniques is of great significance especially for studies at the micro geographical scale. However, most studies on the location processes of high‐tech firms have been conducted at the global (Sachwald 2008), national (Fallah et al ) and sub‐national scales (Artal‐Tur et al ). By contrast, very few studies have attempted to look into this phenomenon empirically at the citywide scale.…”

Spatial Thinking and Geographic Information Science

“…Artal- Tur et al (2012) analyze the relevance of spatial spillover effects for manufacturing and service industry, paying particular attention to effects arising beyond the municipality boundary. When a fi rm decides its location, it does not only consider the economic situation in the municipality, but also considers the situation of neighboring municipalities, such as access to related fi rms and facilities, and availability of skilled workers for hire.…”

“…The papers assembled in here contribute to issues of spatial thinking in at least three ways. First, the papers by Tamagawa (2012), Artal-Tur et al (2012), Tsutsumi and Tamesue (2012), and Murakami and Tsutsumi (2012) address issues of spatial infl uence. Tamagawa (2012) undertakes recursive analysis of market dynamics in order to determine the territory of two facilities on a two-dimensional plane.…”