The Handbook Of Manufacturing Industries In The World Economy
May 2015
The Handbook Of Manufacturing Industries In The World Economy
Jennifer Clark
Much of the literature and debate over the last decade has been on understanding service-based economies, neglecting manufacturing and its effects on the economy. The current financial crisis has been associated with political debates that revolve around the ‘real’ economy and a call for rebalancing regional and national economies. Over the last decade or so, manufacturing has been transformed but academic understanding has not kept pace with these alterations. Many of these alterations revolve around the development of new forms of expertise-driven manufacturing, new geographies of production, jobless growth and new forms of financialisation applied to manufacturing. These on-going transformations …
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Jan 2012
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Edward J Feser
We investigate whether a more concentrated regional industrial structure – the dominance of a few large firms in a given industry in a region – limits agglomeration economies and ultimately diminishes the economic performance of firms in that industry, especially small ones. In an application to three industries using establishment-level production functions and a combination of confidential and publicly available data sources, we find a consistently negative and substantial direct productivity effect associated with regional industrial structure concentration and only mixed and relatively weak evidence that agglomeration economies are a mediating factor in that effect.
Introduction To The Special Issue On Manufacturing, Jennifer Clark, Pierre Clavel
Dec 2011
Introduction To The Special Issue On Manufacturing, Jennifer Clark, Pierre Clavel
Jennifer Clark
Manufacturing has long been the focus for progressive reforms. But these reforms, pushed by labor in the 1930s and 1940s, did not particularly involve city planners, and the idea of “progressive planning” that emerged in the 1960s focused on community and neighborhood struggles over urban renewal, highway clearances and the depredations of real estate developers—not necessarily manufacturing. The question now is whether, with changes in manufacturing, and new initiatives from the Obama administration, progressives can make a contribution through the manufacturing sector, and whether professional planners can play a role at all.We asked a group of geographers and planners—academics and …
The Spatial Extent Of Agglomeration Economies: Evidence From Three U.S. Manufacturing Industries., Joshua Drucker
Dec 2011
The Spatial Extent Of Agglomeration Economies: Evidence From Three U.S. Manufacturing Industries., Joshua Drucker
Joshua Drucker
The spatial extent of localized agglomeration economies constitutes one of the central current questions in regional science. It is crucial for understanding firm location decisions and for assessing the influence of proximity in shaping spatial patterns of economic activity, yet clear-cut answers are difficult to come by. Theoretical work often fails to define or specify the spatial dimension of agglomeration phenomena. Existing empirical evidence is far from consistent. Most sources of data on economic performance do not supply micro-level information containing usable geographic locations. This paper provides evidence of the distances across which distinct sources of agglomeration economies generate benefits …
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries., Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Dec 2011
Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries., Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser
Joshua Drucker
We investigate whether a more concentrated regional industrial structure – the dominance of a few large firms in a given industry in a region – limits agglomeration economies and ultimately diminishes the economic performance of firms in that industry, especially small ones. In an application to three industries using establishment-level production functions and a combination of confidential and publicly available data sources, we find a consistently negative and substantial direct productivity effect associated with regional industrial structure concentration and only mixed and relatively weak evidence that agglomeration economies are a mediating factor in that effect.
How Does Size Matter? Investigating The Relationships Among Plant Size, Industrial Structure, And Manufacturing Productivity., Joshua Drucker
Dec 2010
How Does Size Matter? Investigating The Relationships Among Plant Size, Industrial Structure, And Manufacturing Productivity., Joshua Drucker
Joshua Drucker
Industrial concentration and market power have been studied extensively at the national scale, in fields ranging from economics and industrial organization to regional science and economic development. At the regional scale, however, industrial structure and firm size relationships have received little attention outside of non-generalizable case studies, primarily because accurate measurements require difficult-to-obtain plant- or firm-level information. Readily available secondary data sources on establishment size distributions (such as County Business Patterns or the Census of Manufactures) cannot be linked to performance information for particular establishments or firms. Yet region-specific industrial structure may be a crucial determinant of firm performance and …
