Search

Polluting firms typically relocate to avoid stringent environmental regulations. Based on China's Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy, we examine the impact of environmental regulation on firms' location decisions. The results show that in the upwind TCZ near interprovincial areas, the distance of polluting firms to the border is significantly reduced after environmental regulation is tightened. This finding provides new evidence for the need to strengthen regional joint prevention and control to prevent trans-regional pollution transfer.

For a long time, it was assumed that hard location factors (e.g. workforce, land) were the primary influence on the location decisions of firms. In the course of the tertiarization of the economy and linked increases in the qualification of employees as well as changes in values and timemodels, soft location factors (e.g. image, cultural offerings) are expected to gain in importance. Therefore, this paper examines whether the importance of soft location factors has really increased in comparison to traditional, hard location factors. For this purpose, company surveys conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mittlerer Niederrhein (Germany) in 2002 and 2017 are analysed. More than 1,000 firms took part in both surveys and evaluated more than 50 location factors in terms of their importance. The results of the study show that the importance of soft location factors related to quality of life (e.g. safety, image) and the city centre (e.g. parking) increased significantly over this time period. In comparison, the importance of the hard location factors stagnated or even decreased (without including the factor information and communication infrastructure). These results provide indications for the local authorities concerning which site conditions are important for retaining firms or attracting new companies in the future.

Literature has provided empirical evidence showing the importance of location for understanding KIBS effective service provision. According to territorial servitization postulates KIBS are also fundamental for the development of the manufacturing firms. Despite KIBS can be an important source of innovation, limited attention is paid of KIBS in Latin America region. The purpose of this research is analysing the relationship between KIBS co-location and innovativeness of the manufacturing firms. Drawing on the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2017 for Latin-American countries, authors analyse 3,029 manufacturing firms using OLS method. Findings indicate that manufacturing firms’ location based on KIBS proximity is a critical determinant of innovativeness. This relationship is considerably stronger in Central American countries, where according to our data there is KIBS scarcity.

This study examines the spatial association between science- and technology-related entrepreneurship and neighbourhood walkability in eastern Nebraska, often referred to as the northern ‘Silicon Prairie’. Tech start-up firms are expected to gravitate toward more walkable or pedestrian-oriented urban locations to benefit from heightened social interaction, knowledge spillovers and a more vibrant, creative atmosphere. Data on start-up firms collected from the online database Crunchbase.com and a walkability index provided by the popular online service Walk Score® were used to evaluate the walkability–tech entrepreneurship nexus. The spatial relationship between walkability and firm location may have important implications for metropolitan areas seeking to incubate new firms and industries in situ, and potentially become leaders in new, innovative industries.

In the global market, food sales are connected with two opposing trends. On one hand, new markets are appearing and the number of suppliers is increasing as well as the range of goods. On the other hand, the growth in the number of producers means intensification of competition. Local food producers have to deal with the optimal location problem for their outlets, taking into account potential and existing competitors. The solution to the problem can be based on spatial competition theory conclusions particularly using some spatial competition models. The given methodology is chosen for the research purposes. The article gives some definitions of such concept as «economic space» and «spatial competition», which enables the analysis and helps find disadvantages of the existing spatial competition models. The agent's economic space is created for differentiation of interests and is a result of the competition. Spatial competition is an imperfect competition of producers (dealers) for the share of market space by means of price tools. Some regressions are built to look into relations between the number and density of firms and the number and density of population in the cities. The analysis is based on real data about shops' locations in Siberia Federal District. It is found that there is not any dependence between wages and the number and density of population in the cities. The built regressions show that additional centripetal forces exist in the cities. It means that simple theoretical models of spatial competition describe the reality inaccurately and it's more useful to apply more sophisticated models. So, the competition level depends on the agent's location. The competition is decreasing near administrative borders because the price is higher due to transport costs. However, diminishing of transport costs can lead to the concentration of production in large markets or near them.

This study gives some insight into the relationships between the spatial environment, firm characteristics and long term existence of firms in the Netherlands. A logit model is employed to investigate the locational difference of firms, considering firm characteristics such as age, size, region and network. The main findings are that (long-term) continuation of the location and firm size are positively associated with long-term existence of firms.

This article analyses the effect of immigration flows on the growthand efficiency of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. While most studies werefocusing on the effect immigrants have on labour markets at an aggregate level,here, we argue that the impact of immigration on firm performance should not onlybe considered in terms of the labour market, but also in terms of how city’s amenitiescan affect the performance of firms. Implementing a panel data methodology,we show that the immigrants’ increasing pressure has a positive effect on labourproductivity and wages and a negative effect on the job evolution of these manufacturingfirms. In addition, both small and new firms are more sensitive to thepressures of immigrant inflow, while foreign market oriented firms report higherproductivity levels and a less marked impact of immigration than their counterparts.We also present a set of instruments to control for endogeneity. It allows us toconfirm the effect of local immigration flows on the performance of manufacturingfirms.

While the effects of non-geographic aggregation on statistical inference are well studied in economics, research on the effects of geographic aggregation on regression analysis is rather scarce. This knowledge gap, together with the use of aggregated spatial units in previous firm location studies, results in a lack of understanding of firm location determinants at the microgeographic level. Suitable data for microgeographic location analysis has become available only recently through the emergence of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), especially the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project, and the increasing availability of official (open) geodata. In this paper, we use a comprehensive dataset of three million street-level geocoded firm observations to explore the location pattern of software firms in an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). Based on the ESDA results, we develop a software firm location prediction model using Poisson regression and OSM data. Our findings offer novel insights into the mode of operation of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) in the context of a microgeographic location analysis: We find that non-aggregated data can be used to detect information on location determinants, which are superimposed when aggregated spatial units are analyzed, and that some findings of previous firm location studies are not robust at the microgeographic level. However, we also conclude that the lack of high-resolution geodata on socio-economic population characteristics causes systematic prediction errors, especially in cities with diverse and segregated populations.

In a context of strong financial, environmental and energy constraints, to reduce the consumption of fossil energy in the field of transport becomes not only an emergency but imposes a paradigm shift in terms of transport policy. It is not sufficient today to improve the supply, to target travel demand and stimulate behavior change becomes necessary. In particular, commuting structuring mobility practices also strongly contributes to CO2 emissions. By combining census data and household travel surveys in two different urban areas, Lille and Lyon, our aim is first to measure the CO2 emissions related to commuting and secondly, to identify the most emitting CO2 zone from the point of view of the residences and jobs location in the two contexts. The results are discussed in a perspective of enlargement and improvement of collective approaches (Company or Inter-company Travel Plans) focused on home-work migration. They highlight some explaining factors but also the role that could take the urban form in the reduction of CO2 emissions, through the centralities and the functional specialization.

A growing body of empirical urban economic studies suggests that agglomeration and accessibility externalities are important sources of the uneven distribution of economic activities across cities and regions. At the same time, little is known about the importance of agglomeration economies for the actual location behavior of firms. This is remarkable, since theories that underlie agglomeration economies are microeconomic in nature. In a case study of the Dutch province of South-Holland, we analyze micro level data to determine the extent to which relocation decisions are dependent on accessibility and agglomeration externalities (when controlling for firm characteristics). These externalities are measured with location attributes for localization- (own-sector) and urbanization economies and proximity to transport infrastructures, respectively. The results confirm that firm relocation behavior is affected much more by firm level attributes (size, age and growth rates) than by the agglomeration and accessibility attributes. Still, accessibility and agglomeration are significantly attached to firm relocations, though they vary over sectors. Own-sector and generalized external economies are more important for a firm’s location choices than proximity to transport infrastructures.