Firms' death rate and spatial agglomeration. Evidence on the resilience of Italian local production systems

The paper investigates the role spatial agglomeration has in affecting firm mortality of industries. In particular, the role of variety and specialization is addressed, along with the extent to which industrial clusters can be retained industrial districts. Empirical evidence is provided for a large panel of Italian provinces and manufacturing sectors, over the period 1995-2007. Urbanization economies, rather than localization ones, significantly diminish firm mortality of industries at the local level. The same holds true for industrial variety, even far from the specialization core. Industrial districts, instead, are neither safe nor dangerous places for firms, unless variety is controlled for. Preliminary evidence is also provided by the serial and spatial autocorrelation of firm’ death and start-up rates.