IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wvu/wpaper/18-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Spatial Distribution of Urban Consumer Service Firms: Evidence from Yelp Reviews

Author

Listed:
  • Brad Humphreys

    (West Virginia University)

  • Josh Matti

    (West Virginia University)

Abstract

A growing literature employs distance-based measures of localization to assess the spatial distribution of firms with a focus on manufacturing across a country. We analyze the spatial concentration of a variety of consumer services firms in the Phoenix, AZ area using geo-referenced Yelp data from over 29,000 establishments. Results from a K-density approach indicate substantial localization and service differentiation among localized firms. Firm concentration varies across service cost and quality; higher quality/cost establishments tend to cluster. Our results further understanding of the modern urban landscape as cities are increasingly centers of consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Brad Humphreys & Josh Matti, 2018. "The Spatial Distribution of Urban Consumer Service Firms: Evidence from Yelp Reviews," Working Papers 18-03, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    • Handle: RePEc:wvu:wpaper:18-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=econ_working-papers
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey H. Fischer & Joseph E. Harrington Jr., 1996. "Product Variety and Firm Agglomeration," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(2), pages 281-309, Summer.
    2. Anas, Alex, 2007. "A unified theory of consumption, travel and trip chaining," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 162-186, September.
    3. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Testing for Localization Using Micro-Geographic Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1077-1106.
    4. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2008. "Exploring The Detailed Location Patterns Of U.K. Manufacturing Industries Using Microgeographic Data," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 213-243, February.
    5. Billings, Stephen B. & Johnson, Erik B., 2016. "Agglomeration within an urban area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 13-25.
    6. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    7. Edward L. Glaeser & Hyunjin Kim & Michael Luca, 2019. "Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data for Twenty-First-Century Economic Statistics, pages 249-273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Janet S. Netz & Beck A. Taylor, 2002. "Maximum Or Minimum Differentiation? Location Patterns Of Retail Outlets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 162-175, February.
    9. Behrens, Kristian & Bougna, Théophile, 2015. "An anatomy of the geographical concentration of Canadian manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 47-69.
    10. Marcon, Eric & Traissac, Stéphane & Puech, Florence & Lang, Gabriel, 2015. "Tools to Characterize Point Patterns: dbmss for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 67(c03).
    11. Konishi, Hideo, 2005. "Concentration of competing retail stores," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 488-512, November.
    12. Ellison, Glenn & Glaeser, Edward L, 1997. "Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 889-927, October.
    13. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2006. "Urban Resurgence and the Consumer City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(8), pages 1275-1299, July.
    14. Nakajima, Kentaro & Saito, Yukiko Umeno & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2012. "Measuring economic localization: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 201-220.
    15. Barlet, M. & Briant, A. & Crusson, L., 2013. "Location patterns of service industries in France: A distance-based approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 338-351.
    16. Picone, Gabriel A. & Ridley, David B. & Zandbergen, Paul A., 2009. "Distance decreases with differentiation: Strategic agglomeration by retailers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 463-473, May.
    17. Glenn Ellison & Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr, 2010. "What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1195-1213, June.
    18. Takahashi, Takaaki, 2013. "Agglomeration in a city with choosy consumers under imperfect information," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 28-42.
    19. Jenny Schuetz & Richard K. Green, 2014. "Is The Art Market More Bourgeois Than Bohemian?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 273-303, March.
    20. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2003. "Evaluating the Geographic Concentration of Industries Using Distance-Based Methods," Post-Print halshs-00372646, HAL.
    21. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2009. "Measures of the Geographic Concentration of Industries: Improving Distance-Based Methods," Working Papers halshs-00372617, HAL.
    22. Zhou, Tingyu & Clapp, John M., 2015. "The location of new anchor stores within metropolitan areas," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 87-107.
    23. Humphreys, Brad R. & Zhou, Li, 2015. "Sports facilities, agglomeration, and public subsidies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 60-73.
    24. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2003. "Evaluating the geographic concentration of industries using distance-based methods," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 409-428, October.
    25. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2003. "Evaluating the Geographic Concentration of Industries Using Distance-Based Methods," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00372646, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gabriel Lang & Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2020. "Distance-based measures of spatial concentration: introducing a relative density function," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 64(2), pages 243-265, April.
    2. Marcon, Eric & Puech, Florence, 2017. "A typology of distance-based measures of spatial concentration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 56-67.
    3. Marta R. Casanova & Vicente Orts & José M. Albert, 2017. "Sectoral scope and colocalisation of Spanish manufacturing industries," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 65-92, January.
    4. Behrens, Kristian & Bougna, Théophile, 2015. "An anatomy of the geographical concentration of Canadian manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 47-69.
    5. Eva Coll‐Martínez & Ana‐Isabel Moreno‐Monroy & Josep‐Maria Arauzo‐Carod, 2019. "Agglomeration of creative industries: An intra‐metropolitan analysis for Barcelona," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 409-431, February.
    6. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2012. "A typology of distance-based measures of spatial concentration," Working Papers halshs-00679993, HAL.
    7. William R. Kerr & Scott Duke Kominers, 2015. "Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 877-899, October.
    8. Bartelme, Dominick & Ziv, Oren, 2023. "JUE Insight: Firms and industry agglomeration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Edilberto Tiago Almeida & Raul Mota Silveira Neto & Jaime Macedo Brito Bastos & Rubens Lopes Pereira Silva, 2021. "Location patterns of service activities in large metropolitan areas: the Case of São Paulo," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(2), pages 451-481, October.
    10. Nakajima, Kentaro & Saito, Yukiko Umeno & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2012. "Measuring economic localization: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 201-220.
    11. Billings, Stephen B. & Johnson, Erik B., 2016. "Agglomeration within an urban area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 13-25.
    12. Barlet, M. & Briant, A. & Crusson, L., 2013. "Location patterns of service industries in France: A distance-based approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 338-351.
    13. Hiroyasu Inoue & Kentaro Nakajima & Yukiko Umeno Saito, 2019. "Localization of collaborations in knowledge creation," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(1), pages 119-140, February.
    14. Gibbons, Steve & Overman, Henry G. & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2015. "Spatial Methods," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 115-168, Elsevier.
    15. Valerien O. Pede & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Henri L. F. de Groot & Gustavo Barboza, 2021. "Technological leadership and sectorial employment growth: A spatial econometric analysis for U.S. counties," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 50(1), February.
    16. Di Giacinto, Valter & Pagnini, Marcello, 2011. "Local and global agglomeration patterns: Two econometrics-based indicators," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 266-280, May.
    17. Sugam Agarwal & Smruti Ranjan Behera, 2022. "Geographical concentration of knowledge and technology-intensive industries in India: empirical evidence from establishment-level analysis," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 513-552, December.
    18. Diego Giuliani & Giuseppe Arbia & Giuseppe Espa, 2014. "Weighting Ripley’s K-Function to Account for the Firm Dimension in the Analysis of Spatial Concentration," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 37(3), pages 251-272, July.
    19. Kristy Buzard & Gerald A. Carlino & Jake Carr & Robert M. Hunt & Tony E. Smith, 2015. "Localized Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from the Agglomeration of American R&D Labs and Patent Data," Working Papers 15-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    20. Karsten Rusche & Uwe Kies & Andreas Schulte, 2011. "Measuring spatial co-agglomeration patterns by extending ESDA techniques," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 31(1), pages 11-25, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    localization; consumer services; consumer city; k-density function; spatial concentration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wvu:wpaper:18-03. 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: Feng Yao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewvuus.html .

    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.