The dynamics of industry agglomeration: Evidence from 44 years of coagglomeration patterns

Mathieu P.A. Steijn*, Hans R.A. Koster, Frank G. Van Oort

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Evidence abounds that agglomeration patterns have changed over time, but little is known about changes in the underlying determinants of agglomeration. We analyze 44 years of coagglomeration patterns of U.S. manufacturing industries and show that over time, input-output linkages and labor market pooling have become less important determinants of industry agglomeration, while knowledge spillovers have become more important. We show that trade and technology shocks are strongly associated with the decline in labor market pooling and the increase in knowledge spillovers. The downward trend in input-output linkages is associated with an increase in trade competition but not with a decrease in the transportation costs of goods.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103456
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Urban Economics
Volume130
Early online date22 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
☆ We would like to thank in particular Bill Kerr, Ed Glaeser, Frank Neffke, Dario Diodato, and the editor Nathaniel Baum-Snow, but also David Autor, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Ron Boschma, Jasmina Chauvin, Gilles Duranton, Koen Frenken, Henri de Groot, César Hidalgo, Jos van Ommeren, Anna Salomons, Michael Storper, Will Strange, two anonymous referees, and participants at seminars at NBER, Harvard University, MIT Media Lab, Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, UEA New York and Amsterdam, GEOINNO2018, and ERSA Groningen for useful comments on this paper. We also wish to thank Gilles Duranton, Sergio Petralia, and Bill Kerr for providing data. This work has benefited from grant 438-13-406 from JPI Urban Europe (Steijn and van Oort).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Keywords

  • Coagglomeration
  • Input-output linkages
  • Knowledge spillovers
  • Labor market pooling

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The dynamics of industry agglomeration: Evidence from 44 years of coagglomeration patterns'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this