IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/deg/conpap/c017_050.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heterogeneous Firms and Cluster Productivity: A Neglected Externality Through Survival of the Weakest

Author

Listed:
  • Cornelis W. Haasnoot
  • Albert de Vaal

Abstract

We argue that geographical clustering helps the weakest firms to survive. We model this neglected negative externality by adapting the heterogeneous firms model of Melitz (2003) to include firms that invest in R&D and firms that do not. Separating the chance of post-entry market exit into a system risk that is exogenous to all firms and a firm-specific risk that can be reduced by doing R&D, we find that only the most productive firms will invest in R&D. Incorporating knowledge spillovers to proxy for geographical proximity, the benefits from these R&D investments may spill over to other firms. This occurs either directly by reducing the firm-specific risk for non-R&D firm, or indirectly, by making R&D investments cheaper. The effects on innovation are different for these two cases: direct spillovers reduce innovation while indirect spillovers increase it. However, for both cases it holds that the effect on average productivity within the region is clearly negative.

Suggested Citation

  • Cornelis W. Haasnoot & Albert de Vaal, 2012. "Heterogeneous Firms and Cluster Productivity: A Neglected Externality Through Survival of the Weakest," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_050, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    • Handle: RePEc:deg:conpap:c017_050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://degit.sam.sdu.dk/papers/degit_17/C017_050.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian T. McCann & Timothy B. Folta, 2009. "Demand‐ and Supply‐Side Agglomerations: Distinguishing between Fundamentally Different Manifestations of Geographic Concentration," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 362-392, May.
    2. Klepper, Steven, 2010. "The origin and growth of industry clusters: The making of Silicon Valley and Detroit," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 15-32, January.
    3. Richard E. Baldwin & Toshihiro Okubo, 2006. "Heterogeneous firms, agglomeration and economic geography: spatial selection and sorting," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 323-346, June.
    4. Folta, Timothy B. & Cooper, Arnold C. & Baik, Yoon-suk, 2006. "Geographic cluster size and firm performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 217-242, March.
    5. Edward L. Glaeser & Glenn Ellison, 1999. "The Geographic Concentration of Industry: Does Natural Advantage Explain Agglomeration?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 311-316, May.
    6. Timothy Folta & Brian Mccann, 2009. "Demand- and supply-side agglomerations : Distinguishing between fundamentally different manifestations of geographic concentration," Post-Print hal-02311825, HAL.
    7. Richard E. Caves, 1998. "Industrial Organization and New Findings on the Turnover and Mobility of Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 1947-1982, December.
    8. Karl Wennberg & Göran Lindqvist, 2010. "The effect of clusters on the survival and performance of new firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 221-241, April.
    9. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    10. 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.
    11. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    12. Silviano Pérez & Amparo Llopis & Juan Llopis, 2004. "The Determinants of Survival of Spanish Manufacturing Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 25(3), pages 251-273, August.
    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. Wang, Liang & Tan, Justin & Li, Wan, 2018. "The impacts of spatial positioning on regional new venture creation and firm mortality over the industry life cycle," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 41-52.
    2. Haasnoot, Cornelis W. & de Vaal, Albert, 2022. "Heterogeneous firms and cluster externalities: how asymmetric effects at the firm level affect cluster productivity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    3. Xiwei Zhu & Ye Liu & Ming He & Deming Luo & Yiyun Wu, 2019. "Entrepreneurship and industrial clusters: evidence from China industrial census," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 595-616, March.
    4. Delgado, Mercedes & Porter, Michael E. & Stern, Scott, 2014. "Clusters, convergence, and economic performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1785-1799.
    5. Diego Puga, 2010. "The Magnitude And Causes Of Agglomeration Economies," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 203-219, February.
    6. Guo, Di & Jiang, Kun & Xu, Chenggang & Yang, Xiyi, 2023. "Geographic clusters, regional productivity and resource reallocation across firms: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    7. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    8. Carla Costa & Rui Baptista, 2023. "Knowledge inheritance and performance of spinouts," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 29-55, March.
    9. Ganesh Pillai, Rajani & Bindroo, Vishal, 2020. "Supplier cluster characteristics and innovation outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 576-583.
    10. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Kristian Behrens & Gilles Duranton & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(3), pages 507-553.
    12. Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2015. "Agglomeration Theory with Heterogeneous Agents," 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 171-245, Elsevier.
    13. Lucas Figal Garone & Alessandro Maffioli & Joao Negri & Cesar Rodriguez & Gonzalo Vázquez-Baré, 2015. "Cluster development policy, SME’s performance, and spillovers: evidence from Brazil," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 925-948, April.
    14. Bahar, Dany & Rosenow, Samuel & Stein, Ernesto & Wagner, Rodrigo, 2019. "Export take-offs and acceleration: Unpacking cross-sector linkages in the evolution of comparative advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 48-60.
    15. Mark J. O. Bagley, 2019. "Networks, geography and the survival of the firm," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 1173-1209, September.
    16. Sam Tavassoli & Viroj Jienwatcharamongkhol & Pia Arenius, 2023. "Colocation of Entrepreneurs and New Firm Survival: Role of New Firm Founder’s Experiential Relatedness to Local Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1421-1459, July.
    17. Christian Ochsner, 2017. "Dismantled once, diverged forever? A quasi-natural experiment of Red Army misdeeds in post-WWII Europe," ifo Working Paper Series 240, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    18. Luis Cabral & Zhu Wang & Daniel Yi Xu, 2018. "Competitor, Complementors, Parents and Places: Explaining Regional Agglomeration in the U.S. Auto Industry," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 30, pages 1-29, October.
    19. 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.
    20. FERRAGINA, Anna Maria, 2013. "The Impact of FDI on Firm Survival and Employment: A Comparative Analysis for Turkey and Italy," CELPE Discussion Papers 127, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    21. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    geographical clustering; R&D spillovers; heterogeneous firms; government policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    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:deg:conpap:c017_050. 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: Jan Pedersen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehhsdk.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.