IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0259352.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evolution of industrial diversification and its determinants in West Germany: Evidence from population data of enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra Kublina
  • Muhammad Ali

Abstract

Germany is among the largest countries in the world in terms of total GDP, owing largely to rapid industrialization and expansion of economic activities into several sectors. This paper contributes to the literature on German economic development by investigating the evolution of industry diversification in Germany; particularly focusing on the recent concepts of related (RV) and unrelated variety (UV) in West German regions. It also identifies the statistical and economic determinants of variation in variety over time. Among several industry structure measures; RV is the only measure that reveals a pronounced increasing trend. Since RV is composed of two parts: 1) entropy at five-digit within a two-digit classification, and 2) shares of two-digit sectors in total output, we examined which of the two components dominate. Our findings suggest that the entropy component within two-digit sectoral shares of the RV index is more dominant than the two-digit sectoral shares themselves. We further examined entries and exits of the firms among regions with top and bottom rankings in RV. Findings suggest that both the top and bottom regions experienced an increase in the total number of industries, however, exits were much less pronounced in the bottom regions. It suggests that an increase in variety among top regions is the result of the creative destruction type effect where new industries force inefficient old industries to leave the region. Finally, analysis shows support for the inverse u-shaped relationship between development and diversification.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra Kublina & Muhammad Ali, 2021. "Evolution of industrial diversification and its determinants in West Germany: Evidence from population data of enterprises," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0259352
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259352
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0259352
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0259352&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0259352?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. 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.
    2. Boschma, Ron & Capone, Gianluca, 2015. "Institutions and diversification: Related versus unrelated diversification in a varieties of capitalism framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1902-1914.
    3. Aleksandra Parteka & Massimo Tamberi, 2013. "What Determines Export Diversification in the Development Process? Empirical Assessment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 807-826, June.
    4. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    5. Florian Noseleit, 2013. "Entrepreneurship, structural change, and economic growth," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 735-766, September.
    6. M. Hartog & R. Boschma & M. Sotarauta, 2012. "The Impact of Related Variety on Regional Employment Growth in Finland 1993--2006: High-Tech versus Medium/Low-Tech," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 459-476, August.
    7. 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.
    8. Francesca Mameli & Alessandra Faggian & Philip McCann, 2008. "Employment Growth in Italian Local Labour Systems: Issues of Model Specification and Sectoral Aggregation," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 343-360.
    9. Paul Bishop & Peter Gripaios, 2010. "Spatial Externalities, Relatedness and Sector Employment Growth in Great Britain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 443-454.
    10. Henderson, Vernon & Kuncoro, Ari & Turner, Matt, 1995. "Industrial Development in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 1067-1090, October.
    11. C. A. Hidalgo & B. Klinger & A. -L. Barabasi & R. Hausmann, 2007. "The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations," Papers 0708.2090, arXiv.org.
    12. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. Roberto Ercole & Robert O'neill, 2017. "The Influence of Agglomeration Externalities on Manufacturing Growth Within Indonesian Locations," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 91-126, March.
    3. S. Stavropoulos & F. G. Oort & M. J. Burger, 2020. "Heterogeneous relatedness and firm productivity," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(2), pages 403-437, October.
    4. repec:elg:eechap:14395_12 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Elekes, Zoltán, 2016. "A regionális növekedés új tényezői az evolúciós gazdaságföldrajzi kutatásokban. A változatosság és a technológiai közelség [The new factors of regional growth in research into evolutionary economic," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 307-329.
    6. 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.
    7. Belmartino, Andrea & Calá, Carla Daniela, 2020. "A regional approach to the study of industrial diversity in Argentina (1996–2012)," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    8. Nicola Cortinovis & Zhiling Wang & Hengky Kurniawan, 2021. "Industrial Relatedness in MNE Spillovers over Geographical Space," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2111, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Mar 2021.
    9. 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.
    10. Niccolò Innocenti & Luciana Lazzeretti, 2018. "Relatedness and growth: The impact of creative industries to the wider economy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1819, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Apr 2018.
    11. 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, February.
    12. Luciana Lazzeretti & Niccolò Innocenti & Francesco Capone, 2015. "Does Related variety matter for Creative Industries?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1510, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2015.
    13. Nicola Cortinovis & Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Frank G van Oort, 2017. "Quality of government and social capital as drivers of regional diversification in Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(6), pages 1179-1208.
    14. Ji?í Blažek & David Marek & Viktor Kv?to?, 2016. "The Variety of Related Variety Studies: Opening the Black Box of Technological Relatedness via Analysis of Inter-firm R&D Cooperative Projects," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1611, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2016.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Luciana Lazzeretti & Niccolò Innocenti & Francesco Capone, 2017. "The impact of related variety on the creative employment growth," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(3), pages 491-512, May.
    18. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2020. "Regional patterns of unrelated technological diversification: the role of academic inventors," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202001, University of Turin.
    19. Tom Broekel & Lars Mewes, 2017. "Analyzing the impact of R&D policy on regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1726, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2017.
    20. Jaroslav Rusnák & Filip Lehocký, 2019. "Aglomeračné výhody a technologická náročnosť odvetví priemyselnej výroby na slovensku [Agglomeration Economies and Technology Intensity of Industry Sector in Slovakia]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2019(4), pages 426-443.
    21. 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.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0259352. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.