IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v56y2019i16p3358-3374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of agglomeration economies on firm deaths: A comparison of firm and regional based approaches

Author

Listed:
  • Bernadette Power

    (University College Cork, Ireland)

  • Justin Doran

    (Spatial and Regional Economics Research Centre, University College Cork, Ireland)

  • Geraldine Ryan

    (University College Cork, Ireland)

Abstract

This paper compares the merits of regional and firm based approaches for analysing the effect of agglomeration economies on firm deaths in Ireland. We aggregate a comprehensive data set on Irish firm deaths to Electoral Division (ED) level, the lowest geographical scale available. Estimates of the effect of agglomeration on firm deaths from a regional analysis at ED level using a cross-sectional spatial-autoregressive spatial error model are compared with firm-level estimates from a contemporary log-log model with spatially weighted agglomeration regressors. While estimates of the effects of agglomeration using these alternative methods is much discussed in existing literature rarely are the approaches or results compared. We show that contrasting results are found using the same data set dependent upon the unit of analysis used. Diversity lowers regional and firm deaths while specialisation raises regional deaths but lowers firm deaths. Greater urbanisation does not have a significant effect on firm hazard rates or equivalent regional estimates. While regional estimates provide evidence on the existence and nature of spatial dependence (negative in this case), firm estimates do not provide evidence that agglomeration in neighbouring regions is the source of this spatial dependence. No empirical analysis to our knowledge directly compares regional and firm based approaches for analysing the effect of spatial agglomeration economies on firm deaths.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernadette Power & Justin Doran & Geraldine Ryan, 2019. "The effect of agglomeration economies on firm deaths: A comparison of firm and regional based approaches," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3358-3374, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:16:p:3358-3374
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018817428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018817428
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018817428?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre‐Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon & Diego Puga & Sébastien Roux, 2012. "The Productivity Advantages of Large Cities: Distinguishing Agglomeration From Firm Selection," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2543-2594, November.
    2. Marcus Dejardin, 2004. "Sectoral and cross-sectoral effects of retailing firm demographies," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 38(2), pages 311-334, June.
    3. Ron A. Boschma & Rik Wenting, 2007. "The spatial evolution of the British automobile industry: Does location matter?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(2), pages 213-238, April.
    4. Jean‐Pierre Huiban, 2009. "Urban versus Rural Firms: Does Location Affect Labor Demand?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 649-672, December.
    5. Giulio Cainelli & Sandro Montresor & Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti, 2014. "Spatial agglomeration and firm exit: a spatial dynamic analysis for Italian provinces," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 213-228, June.
    6. Drucker, Joshua & Feser, Edward, 2012. "Regional industrial structure and agglomeration economies: An analysis of productivity in three manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 1-14.
    7. Stuart S. Rosenthal & William C. Strange, 2003. "Geography, Industrial Organization, and Agglomeration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 377-393, May.
    8. Elif Alkay & Geoffrey Hewings, 2012. "The determinants of agglomeration for the manufacturing sector in the Istanbul metropolitan area," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 225-245, February.
    9. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2000. "Diversity and Specialisation in Cities: Why, Where and When Does it Matter?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 533-555, March.
    10. Giuseppe Arbia & Giuseppe Espa & Diego Giuliani & Rocco Micciolo, 2017. "A spatial analysis of health and pharmaceutical firm survival," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1560-1575, July.
    11. P. A. Geroski & José Mata & Pedro Portugal, 2010. "Founding conditions and the survival of new firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 510-529, May.
    12. De Silva, Dakshina G. & McComb, Robert P., 2012. "Geographic concentration and high tech firm survival," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 691-701.
    13. Ron Boschma & Simona Iammarino, 2009. "Related Variety, Trade Linkages, and Regional Growth in Italy," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(3), pages 289-311, July.
    14. Nicola Cortinovis & Frank Oort, 2015. "Variety, economic growth and knowledge intensity of European regions: a spatial panel analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 55(1), pages 7-32, October.
    15. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Ron Boschma & Rikard Eriksson & Urban Lindgren, 2009. "How does labour mobility affect the performance of plants? The importance of relatedness and geographical proximity," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 169-190, March.
    17. Anna Ferragina & Fernanda Mazzotta, 2015. "Agglomeration economies in Italy: impact on heterogeneous firms’ exit in a multilevel framework," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 395-440, December.
    18. Priscila Ferreira & George Saridakis, 2017. "Firm Shutdown During the Financial and the Sovereign Debt Crises: Empirical Evidence from Portugal," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 153-179, May.
    19. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    20. Don J. Webber & John Hudson & Martin Boddy & Anthony Plumridge, 2009. "Regional productivity differentials in England: Explaining the gap," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 609-621, August.
    21. Jopep M. Arauzo-Carod & Miguel C. Manjón-Antolín (ed.), 2007. "Entrepreneurship, Industrial Location and Economic Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12798.
    22. Martijn J. Burger & Frank G. van Oort & Bert van der Knaap, 2010. "A Treatise on the Geographical Scale of Agglomeration Externalities and the MAUP," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 9(1), pages 19-39.
    23. Patricia C Melo & Daniel J Graham & David Levinson & Sarah Aarabi, 2017. "Agglomeration, accessibility and productivity: Evidence for large metropolitan areas in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 179-195, January.
    24. Roberto Antonietti & Giulio Cainelli, 2011. "The role of spatial agglomeration in a structural model of innovation, productivity and export: a firm-level analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 577-600, June.
    25. Corrado, L. & Fingleton, B., 2011. "Multilevel Modelling with Spatial Effects," SIRE Discussion Papers 2011-13, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    26. Daan P. Van Soest & Shelby Gerking & Frank G. Van Oort, 2006. "Spatial Impacts Of Agglomeration Externalities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 881-899, December.
    27. Kelejian, Harry H & Prucha, Ingmar R, 1998. "A Generalized Spatial Two-Stage Least Squares Procedure for Estimating a Spatial Autoregressive Model with Autoregressive Disturbances," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 99-121, July.
    28. Audretsch, David B., 1995. "Innovation, growth and survival," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 441-457, December.
    29. Henry Renski, 2011. "External economies of localization, urbanization and industrial diversity and new firm survival," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(3), pages 473-502, August.
    30. Daniel G. Chatman & Robert B. Noland, 2014. "Transit Service, Physical Agglomeration and Productivity in US Metropolitan Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(5), pages 917-937, April.
    31. Sarah Bridges & Alessandra Guariglia, 2008. "Financial Constraints, Global Engagement, And Firm Survival In The United Kingdom: Evidence From Micro Data," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(4), pages 444-464, September.
    32. Tveteras, Ragnar & Eide, Geir Egil, 2000. "Survival of New Plants in Different Industry Environments in Norwegian Manufacturing: A Semi-proportional Cox Model Approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 65-82, February.
    33. Douglas Cumming, 2008. "Contracts and Exits in Venture Capital Finance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(5), pages 1947-1982, September.
    34. Ian R. Gordon & Philip McCann, 2000. "Industrial Clusters: Complexes, Agglomeration and/or Social Networks?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 513-532, March.
    35. John B Parr, 2002. "Agglomeration Economies: Ambiguities and Confusions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(4), pages 717-731, April.
    36. Koen Frenken & Frank Van Oort & Thijs Verburg, 2007. "Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 685-697.
    37. Roberto Basile & Rosanna Pittiglio & Filippo Reganati, 2017. "Do agglomeration externalities affect firm survival?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 548-562, April.
    38. Shima Hamidi & Ahoura Zandiatashbar, 2019. "Does urban form matter for innovation productivity? A national multi-level study of the association between neighbourhood innovation capacity and urban sprawl," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1576-1594, June.
    39. Sergio Garate & Anthony Pennington-Cross, 2014. "Measuring the Impact of Agglomeration on Productivity: Evidence from Chilean Retailers," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(8), pages 1653-1671, June.
    40. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2012. "Related variety and regional growth in Spain," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 241-256, June.
    41. Pe'er, Aviad & Keil, Thomas, 2013. "Are all startups affected similarly by clusters? Agglomeration, competition, firm heterogeneity, and survival," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 354-372.
    42. Noam Wasserman, 2003. "Founder-CEO Succession and the Paradox of Entrepreneurial Success," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 149-172, April.
    43. Michael Firth & Shihe Fu & Liwei Shan, 2017. "Do agglomeration economies affect the local comovement of stock returns? Evidence from China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(5), pages 1142-1161, April.
    44. Hopenhayn, Hugo A, 1992. "Entry, Exit, and Firm Dynamics in Long Run Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(5), pages 1127-1150, September.
    45. Marcus Box, 2008. "The death of firms: exploring the effects of environment and birth cohort on firm survival in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 379-393, December.
    46. C. M. Van Praag & J. S. Cramer, 2001. "The Roots of Entrepreneurship and Labour Demand: Individual Ability and Low Risk Aversion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(269), pages 45-62, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cheng, Ruiqi & Yuan, Peng & Jiang, Gongxiong, 2023. "Growth, agglomeration externalities, and survival: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing start-ups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Piers Thompson & Wenyu Zang, 2022. "A matter of life and death? Knowledge intensity of FDI activities and domestic enterprise," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(5), pages 1157-1179, October.
    3. Raffaele Scuderi & Giuseppe Tesoriere & Vincenzo Fasone, 2021. "Does Location Matter for Micro Shops Resilience? Evidence from Uganda," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 44(1), pages 10-32, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tobias Ebert & Thomas Brenner & Udo Brixy, 2019. "New firm survival: the interdependence between regional externalities and innovativeness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 287-309, June.
    2. Hervas Oliver,Jose Luis & Gonzalez,Gregorio & Caja,Pedro, 2014. "Clusters and industrial districts: where is the literature going? Identifying emerging sub-fields of research," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201409, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).
    3. Shengjun Zhu & Canfei He & Qian Luo, 2019. "Good neighbors, bad neighbors: local knowledge spillovers, regional institutions and firm performance in China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 617-632, March.
    4. Anna Ferragina & Fernanda Mazzotta, 2015. "Agglomeration economies in Italy: impact on heterogeneous firms’ exit in a multilevel framework," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 395-440, December.
    5. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung - welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert des Wachstum?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 144, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    6. Michael Fritsch & Sandra Kublina, 2018. "Related variety, unrelated variety and regional growth: the role of absorptive capacity and entrepreneurship," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(10), pages 1360-1371, October.
    7. Frank Van Oort, 2013. "Agglomeration Economics Beyond the Specialisation-Diversity Controversy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1313, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2013.
    8. Matthias Firgo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Wissensintensive Unternehmensdienste, Wissens-Spillovers und regionales Wachstum. Teilprojekt 1: Wissens-Spillovers und regionale Entwicklung – Welche strukturpolitische Ausrichtung optimiert das Wach," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58342, April.
    9. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2011. "The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 295-307, March.
    10. Matthias Duschl & Tobias Scholl & Thomas Brenner & Dennis Luxen & Falk Raschke, 2015. "Industry-Specific Firm Growth and Agglomeration," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1822-1839, November.
    11. Giulio Cainelli & Donato Iacobucci, 2012. "Agglomeration, Related Variety, and Vertical Integration," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 88(3), pages 255-277, July.
    12. Sam Tavassoli & Nunzia Carbonara, 2014. "The role of knowledge variety and intensity for regional innovation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 493-509, August.
    13. Jeroen Content & Koen Frenken, 2016. "Related variety and economic development: a literature review," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 2097-2112, December.
    14. repec:elg:eechap:14395_12 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Cheng, Ruiqi & Yuan, Peng & Jiang, Gongxiong, 2023. "Growth, agglomeration externalities, and survival: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing start-ups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Ren Lu & Qing Song & Ting Xia & Daguo Lv & Torger Reve & Ze Jian, 2021. "Unpacking the U‐shaped relationship between related variety and firm sales: Evidence from Japan," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(5), pages 1136-1157, October.
    17. Power Bernadette & Ryan Geraldine & Doran Justin, 2020. "A micro-analysis of Irish firm deaths during the financial crisis (2006–2010)," The Irish Journal of Management, Sciendo, vol. 39(1), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Francesca Mameli & Simona Iammarino & Ron Boschma, 2012. "Regional variety and employment growth in Italian labour market areas: services versus manufacturing industries," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1203, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2012.
    19. Jürgen Essletzbichler, 2013. "Relatedness, industrial branching and technological cohesion in U.S. metropolitan areas," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1307, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2013.
    20. Ron Boschma & Carlo Gianelle, 2014. "Regional Branching and Smart Specialisation Policy," JRC Research Reports JRC88242, Joint Research Centre.
    21. Koh, Hyun-Ju & Riedel, Nadine & Böhm, Tobias, 2013. "Do governments tax agglomeration rents?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 92-106.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:16:p:3358-3374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.